I'm Not Special, I'm Different
by lethalpancake
Summary: Some kids are born...different. There's something about them, something in their blood, that causes them to be born like this. To be born with their animal Marks. And these kids, they are feared, therefore every one of them born, is killed. But what if there were some born, but no one knew of their existence. Until now.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer— I don't own Maximum Ride or anything else you recognize in this or any other chapter**

Once again I woke up to the sound of my worst enemy, my alarm clock. Every single day, when my innocent little self wants to sleep, a very unwanted something always has to ruin everything. Ugh. So anyways, once I turned off my alarm clock, and dragged myself to my closet and found my best clothes, a red shirt with a lightning-like mark across the front, a blue sweater, and jeans. Okay, I know that when you guys hear a girl mention something about her best clothes you imagine a dress or something. Am I right? Well, just letting you know, don't expect that from me, I don't like dresses, or anything too girly for that matter. If you were expecting me to be all interested in makeup and dresses, seriously, you can just leave now. So anyways, I grabbed my clothes and walked into my bathroom, took a shower, got changed, then headed downstairs, where I am absolutely unsurprised to see Fang and Iggy sitting at the table, already dressed, just like everyday. Fang is wearing a black shirt, with a button up shirt over it, except he didn't button it up, and he's wearing his favourite black jeans that my mom got him. I think the only reason he really likes them is because they have two chains hanging across one of the pockets, needless to say I love those jeans too. Iggy was wearing a white shirt that my mom absolutely loves, and grey jeans with his combat boots. You might be wondering what's up with us wearing these totally awesome clothes, well, today is the 15th! My mom is coming! The boys were sitting at the tables with their heads bent towards each other a little, talking in low voices. I used this opportunity to get back at them for bleaching all of my clothes then dying them pink. Pink! For weeks I had to suffer from the pain and embarrassment of having to wear a pink sweater, or a pink pants or pink socks, or something else pink. Oh, the horror. But luckily Fang felt a little bad for me, so he stopped before I had no colored clothes left. Wow, isn't he nice? Oh, don't worry about the pink clothes though, we're always pranking one another. It's kind of our thing.

As I got a little closer, I suddenly realized that they were actually arguing. Well, what's that about? Whatever, they still hadn't realized that I was there, so I wasn't about to waste my chance for even the slightest bit of payback. So, without hesitation, I stopped right behind them, reached out my hands, and smashed their heads together. They both let out loud screams of pain, while I was howling with laughter, and to be perfectly honest, it was funny. I would give anything to show the look on their faces! Priceless!

After their little meltdown, Fang looked over at me and nodded his head, while I just made a face at him, then turned to my brother, Iggy.

"Morning Max. You feeling better?" He asked with a sweet little smile, and for someone who's 13, it's not easy to pull that off. Yeah, because the truth was, I was feeling terrible last night, I had a horrible stomachache. The entire time my little brother stayed with me, well, okay everyone stayed with me, but that's because we don't usually get sick, so it was a little scary. I had Fang run to the kitchen practically every five minutes to fetch me something or another. And the best part? He would actually go! He may be cold and closed off, but when he wants, he can be so sweet. Every now and then when Iggy would leave the room to go make the others something to eat (he is an awesome cook, just smelling what he's making makes you want to drool), Fang would stay by my side.

"Yeah, I'm feeling much better. Must have been a stomach bug or something," I said, trying to reassure him.

"Good, Mom's not going to want to see you sick."

"I know. But don't worry buddy, I'm feeling much better. Hey Fang, go wake up Gazzy, I'm going to go get Nudge and Angel. 'Kay?" I waited for him to answer, but he just nodded his head. Surprise, surprise. After Fang left, I went to the girls' room where I found them hunting through each other's closets trying to find the best dress for the other to wear. This is usually the only day that they actually wake up early. I was about to go in when I heard Nudge's high pitched scream.

"Angel! I found you the most beautiful dress! It's so adorable, come here so I can see how it looks on you!"

"I'm coming!" Angel screamed back. Those two are adorable, but what I don't understannd is why they're screaming. They're in the same room for crying out loud! I didn't want to disturb their girl-fest, but I must admit I wanted to see what they were wearing. I peaked into the room and saw Nudge wearing one of her favourite purple shirt and some tights with black, heel-boot things, and her curly caramel coloured hair tied up in a ponytail, all held together with a little flower pin. She had perfectly applied makeup, the eyeliner, I think it's called, perfectly applied. Angel, on the other hand, had her gorgeous gold locks open, a little bow stuck in her hair, and was wearing a grey dress that was cut in the back so that her wings wouldn't be stuck to her back. Yes, I said wings. That's her Mark-grey bird wings, just like her brother, Gazzy. My Mark is dog ears, and my baby bro, Iggy, has a dog tail. Nudge has a cat tail, and her big brother, Fang, has cat ears. Just saying, the whole animal-ears thing is very helpful. Fang and I can hear stuff that literally no one else can! It's totally awesome!

I look back into their room and see that they're all dressed up, so I go inside,"Wow, you guys look great!" I complimented them, and they immediately started thanking me.

"Thanks so much!" Nudge all but screamed, "You look awesome too! Like seriously, you look so hard core. Like you're just daring someone to touch you. But your hair would look better in a ponytail. Come here, let me fix you up." And before I could object, I was dragged into her room.

"Now, come sit here," she said, pointing to her bed, and I sat down obediantly. You're probably wondering why I'm so willing to let this happen. Well, once Nudge wants to do your makeup, no one can stop her. Believe me, I tried. There was this one time I tried to stop her from making my hair, and she was so angry, she didn't speak to me for a week, and eventually I had to apologize.

So, now there I was sitting on her bad, about to get attacked by her metal contraptions. "Okay, now Max. I know you don't like to get your makeup done, so I'm going to do that last. And instead of putting you hair in a ponytail, I'm going to braid it, it'll look so much cuter." I could hear Angel squealing in the background. So she first got these golden thread like things and braided them into my hair. Then she went to go retrieve her torture devices. I tried to get up and run from the room, but Angel stood in front of the door, her wings spread to their full length, completely blocking the way out of this hell-hole.

"Now, I want you to close your eyes so I can apply the..." And from there I started zoning out (A/N: I actually don't know what order to put that stuff on, I don't use it) and waited as she did whatever she needed to do. Which took another two years.

"You guys coming down? Mom's going to be here any minute, it's almost 12:00." I heard Iggy's voice call from downstairs.

Nudge looked at me with a shocked face, "Its almost 12:00?" She turned to look at the clock on her wall, "ZOMG, it is! We've been up for three hours now, and only just finished! When will your mom arrive? I wanted to ask her to buy new boots for me, these are getting a little old. I mean seriously, look, they are completely torn up," I looked at her boots, but to be honest, I didn't see a single tear, whatever, "But I'll ask her for that later. Right now we have to get downstairs before your mom gets here. Let's go!"

"Um, okay. But that's kind of what I've been trying to tell you. Whatever, let's go." And with that I marched them down where the boys were already waiting for us, Gazzy looked up at me, said hi than dragged me to the couch. I looked around and saw that Iggy and Fang were both sitting in the couch, looking like civil human beings for the first time in their lives. I looked down at Gazzy, "Why are you in such a big hurry?"

"Your mom will be here in three minutes, come on!" Oh. That explains so much.


	2. Chapter 1

Once again I woke up to the sound of my worst enemy, my alarm clock. Every single day, when my innocent little self wants to sleep, a very unwanted something always has to ruin everything. Ugh. So anyways, once I turned off my alarm clock, and dragged myself to my closet and found my best clothes, a red shirt with a lightning-like mark across the front, a blue sweater, and jeans. Okay, I know that when you guys hear a girl mention something about her best clothes you imagine a dress or something. Am I right? Well, just letting you know, don't expect that from me, I don't like dresses, or anything too girly for that matter. If you were expecting me to be all interested in makeup and dresses, seriously, you can just leave now. So anyways, I grabbed my clothes and walked into my bathroom, took a shower, got changed, then headed downstairs, where I am absolutely unsurprised to see Fang and Iggy sitting at the table, already dressed, just like everyday. Fang is wearing a black shirt, with a button up shirt over it, except he didn't button it up, and he's wearing his favourite black jeans that my mom got him. I think the only reason he really likes them is because they have two chains hanging across one of the pockets, needless to say I love those jeans too. Iggy was wearing a white shirt that my mom absolutely loves, and grey jeans with his combat boots. You might be wondering what's up with us wearing these totally awesome clothes, well, today is the 15th! My mom is coming! The boys were sitting at the tables with their heads bent towards each other a little, talking in low voices. I used this opportunity to get back at them for bleaching all of my clothes then dying them pink. Pink! For weeks I had to suffer from the pain and embarrassment of having to wear a pink sweater, or a pink pants or pink socks, or something else pink. Oh, the horror. But luckily Fang felt a little bad for me, so he stopped before I had no colored clothes left. Wow, isn't he nice? Oh, don't worry about the pink clothes though, we're always pranking one another. It's kind of our thing.

As I got a little closer, I suddenly realized that they were actually arguing. Well, what's that about? Whatever, they still hadn't realized that I was there, so I wasn't about to waste my chance for even the slightest bit of payback. So, without hesitation, I stopped right behind them, reached out my hands, and smashed their heads together. They both let out loud screams of pain, while I was howling with laughter, and to be perfectly honest, it was funny. I would give anything to show the look on their faces! Priceless!

After their little meltdown, Fang looked over at me and nodded his head, while I just made a face at him, then turned to my brother, Iggy.

"Morning Max. You feeling better?" He asked with a sweet little smile, and for someone who's 13, it's not easy to pull that off. Yeah, because the truth was, I was feeling terrible last night, I had a horrible stomachache. The entire time my little brother stayed with me, well, okay everyone stayed with me, but that's because we don't usually get sick, so it was a little scary. I had Fang run to the kitchen practically every five minutes to fetch me something or another. And the best part? He would actually go! He may be cold and closed off, but when he wants, he can be so sweet. Every now and then when Iggy would leave the room to go make the others something to eat (he is an awesome cook, just smelling what he's making makes you want to drool), Fang would stay by my side.

"Yeah, I'm feeling much better. Must have been a stomach bug or something," I said, trying to reassure him.

"Good, Mom's not going to want to see you sick."

"I know. But don't worry buddy, I'm feeling much better. Hey Fang, go wake up Gazzy, I'm going to go get Nudge and Angel. 'Kay?" I waited for him to answer, but he just nodded his head. Surprise, surprise. After Fang left, I went to the girls' room where I found them hunting through each other's closets trying to find the best dress for the other to wear. This is usually the only day that they actually wake up early. I was about to go in when I heard Nudge's high pitched scream.

"Angel! I found you the most beautiful dress! It's so adorable, come here so I can see how it looks on you!"

"I'm coming!" Angel screamed back. Those two are adorable, but what I don't understannd is why they're screaming. They're in the same room for crying out loud! I didn't want to disturb their girl-fest, but I must admit I wanted to see what they were wearing. I peaked into the room and saw Nudge wearing one of her favourite purple shirt and some tights with black, heel-boot things, and her curly caramel coloured hair tied up in a ponytail, all held together with a little flower pin. She had perfectly applied makeup, the eyeliner, I think it's called, perfectly applied. Angel, on the other hand, had her gorgeous gold locks open, a little bow stuck in her hair, and was wearing a grey dress that was cut in the back so that her wings wouldn't be stuck to her back. Yes, I said wings. That's her Mark-grey bird wings, just like her brother, Gazzy. My Mark is dog ears, and my baby bro, Iggy, has a dog tail. Nudge has a cat tail, and her big brother, Fang, has cat ears. Just saying, the whole animal-ears thing is very helpful. Fang and I can hear stuff that literally no one else can! It's totally awesome!

I look back into their room and see that they're all dressed up, so I go inside,"Wow, you guys look great!" I complimented them, and they immediately started thanking me.

"Thanks so much!" Nudge all but screamed, "You look awesome too! Like seriously, you look so hard core. Like you're just daring someone to touch you. But your hair would look better in a ponytail. Come here, let me fix you up." And before I could object, I was dragged into her room.

"Now, come sit here," she said, pointing to her bed, and I sat down obediantly. You're probably wondering why I'm so willing to let this happen. Well, once Nudge wants to do your makeup, no one can stop her. Believe me, I tried. There was this one time I tried to stop her from making my hair, and she was so angry, she didn't speak to me for a week, and eventually I had to apologize.

So, now there I was sitting on her bad, about to get attacked by her metal contraptions. "Okay, now Max. I know you don't like to get your makeup done, so I'm going to do that last. And instead of putting you hair in a ponytail, I'm going to braid it, it'll look so much cuter." I could hear Angel squealing in the background. So she first got these golden thread like things and braided them into my hair. Then she went to go retrieve her torture devices. I tried to get up and run from the room, but Angel stood in front of the door, her wings spread to their full length, completely blocking the way out of this hell-hole.

"Now, I want you to close your eyes so I can apply the..." And from there I started zoning out (A/N: I actually don't know what order to put that stuff on, I don't use it) and waited as she did whatever she needed to do. Which took another two years.

"You guys coming down? Mom's going to be here any minute, it's almost 12:00." I heard Iggy's voice call from downstairs.

Nudge looked at me with a shocked face, "Its almost 12:00?" She turned to look at the clock on her wall, "ZOMG, it is! We've been up for three hours now, and only just finished! When will your mom arrive? I wanted to ask her to buy new boots for me, these are getting a little old. I mean seriously, look, they are completely torn up," I looked at her boots, but to be honest, I didn't see a single tear, whatever, "But I'll ask her for that later. Right now we have to get downstairs before your mom gets here. Let's go!"

"Um, okay. But that's kind of what I've been trying to tell you. Whatever, let's go." And with that I marched them down where the boys were already waiting for us, Gazzy looked up at me, said hi than dragged me to the couch. I looked around and saw that Iggy and Fang were both sitting in the couch, looking like civil human beings for the first time in their lives. I looked down at Gazzy, "Why are you in such a big hurry?"

"Your mom will be here in three minutes, come on!" Oh. That explains so much.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

12:26. What the hell was taking Mom so long? She was never late! She actually always came early! I'm getting a little worried, but I'm going to keep my mouth shut since I don't want to worry the little kids. They may be tough for their age, but they aren't soldiers. They act strong, heck, they are strong. But not everyone can be strong all the time. Much less little children. What really upsets me is that children this young actually have to be strong. It's necessary, not optional. Kids their ages are outside, playing with their friends, going to school, having fun, being careless. These guys don't have that. And they never will. Never

"Max, what's taking your mom so long?" I turn to see Angel staring at me with concerned eyes. Her beautiful face, twisted with worry. That was a look you never wanted to see an on an eight year old. It makes your heart feel like shattering.

"I don't know, Ange, but don't worry, she'll be here, just be patient." I turn to look at her and she nodded her head, but still not convinced. I turned my head a little bit to look at everyone else, they were all staring at the window desperately, wishing to see the familiar shadow that belonged to my mother cross the yard, all but Fang. He was staring at me. I didn't need to ask what he was trying to say, I already knew, the message was clear as crystal. I already knew it, but he just confirmed it. If he believed it, I couldn't even bother trying to fool myself any longer. 'She's not coming,' his eyes said, as he looked at me with a look I couldn't identify. I nodded my head only slightly at him, letting him know that I knew, but I tilted my chin slightly towards the others, trying to tell him that we should wait for a minute, just to make sure, and besides, the kids would all worry. I mean seriously, Iggy's only 13, Nudge may be Iggy's best friend, but she was still only 11. Gazzy was 10, and his little sister Angel was 8. So there really wasn't any reason to worry them. He nodded at me again saying that he understood. But he still looked at me with an expression that said we couldn't hide it forever. We'd have to tell the kids. If they didn't already know.

*line break*

We had waited for another two whole hours, but Mom still hadn't shown didn't up. Angel was holding Nudge's hand, while Nudge whispered soothing words to her every now and then, while Gazzy and Iggy were walking back and fourth. Again, and again, and again. Pain and worry painted on their faces. I looked at Fang to see if he was as worried as the others, but no. He looked cool, calm, and collected. So in other words, he looked as he always does-expressionless. This, of course, only annoyed me further, my mother was missing, and he was sitting there as if someone just told him it was about to rain! What the hell is wrong with him? I mean seriously, his shoulders are so...loose, as if he didn't have a care in the world, his face was completely calm, and his eyes were...looking right at me! Oh no! He gave me that pointed look and raised an eyebrow questioningly , and I just looked at him and shrugged my shoulders.

After a few more minutes like this, finally, someone spoke. And not just anybody, Fang spoke! Wow, that was...unexpected. "Max," Ugh, what did he want? "I want to talk to you."

"No dip, Sherlock. I thought you wanted me to bake cookies," I said with sarcasm practically dripping like icicles off of my every word. Because everyone knew I couldn't bake. If I were ever in the army, I'd bake the enemy a batch of cookies as a sign of "surrender", and then watch them all choke and die, "'Kay, let's talk in my room" and with that, I led him to my sky-blue room, "So...what's up?" I asked casually. The way someone might ask what was for dinner.

"We can't just pretend that nothing happened to your mother. We have to tell them that she most likely got caught and that she's probably not coming back. As much as you hate it, we all knew there was a risk. She knew it, but she was willing to take that chance. The least you can do is accept it."

"Yo, Fan, blunt much? You just walk up here and tell me that my mom's probably dead? Wow, totally feeling the love here." I held a hand to my heart, faking hurt. But the thing was, if I was faking it, why did I feel like my heart was breaking? I looked down at my feet after saying this.

"Max, I'm not joking. If she got caught, then we have to let the kids know. They can't let their guard down." I didn't look up, "Listen Max, I know that this is hard for you, she was your mother, and she loved you, but there's no use pretending that this isn't happening." I wanted to tell him that she loved him too, she loved all of us, but I didn't.

I finally looked up at him, "Fine, let's go." And with that, we headed back to the living room, where the others were waiting for us, their eyes wide, wondering what we had been talking about. They were about to find out. Why was I always the bearer of bad news? I swear, life hates me. You people think you have it tough, with homework and tests. Well, my whole life is a test. And if I fail, it ain't just a "Oh no, I failed. What'll mom do?!" It's more like if I fail, I die. I bet you're tests aren't that hard. Are they? I didn't think so.

 **Well, how was that one? Short? Yes. Important? Also yes. And before you complain about the length of the chapter, don't worry, longer chapters are yet to come.**

 **Fly on.**

 **Demonic Angel**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, so, like I said last time, these first few chapters will be a little short, but don't worry. I have a ride planned out for ya.**

Chapter Three

Fang and I walked out of my room and went to go tell the others. I couldn't believe that this was happening. Thinking it, that was one thing, but saying out loud, that was a different matter entirely. Saying it out loud would make it real, it would no longer just be in my head. When you think something, it's like, you know, maybe it won't happen. Like maybe there is something you can do to prevent it. There's also the hope that the people around you have. Saying it out loud is like losing all hope entirely. It's like in a war, if you know you're losing, but keep it to yourself, the others still have a little bit of hope, but when you tell everyone else that you're pretty much doomed, you just accepted defeat. And in a way, this is war. Without realizing, I stopped walking, Fang didn't notice so he kept walking, but after about three steps he realized I was no longer next to him, so he turned around and saw me just standing there, not moving, staring down at the floor.

He turned around to look at me, "Max, really, there's nothing we can do, she's gone." Then he winced at his own words, realizing how harsh and cold he sounded, "Wait, I'm not saying this right," heck yeah, you're not, "What I mean is, since your mom isn't going to be coming in anymore, the kids need someone strong to take care of them, they need someone to watch them."

"But you're older than me, you should be watching them, not me."

"Only one thing you said was actually right. I am older than you, but just think about what a, well, crappy leader I would be. I'm not made of leader material."

"What?" My voice came out barely even a whisper.

He then just smirked at me. "There's no way you'll ever get me to say that again. Come on." And with that, he walked away, but I saw him stop a little ways away. Ha! I knew he would wait. Point one for Max! Oh wait, point one million and one for Max? Yeah, that's a bit more accurate.

He looked back at me and just looked slightly annoyed, I could tell he was trying not to be annoyed by me, since this was a pretty big deal and it affected me the most. Well, it affected Iggy as well, but I was always closer to mom that Iggy ever was. It's not because she liked me more or anything, I actually don't know why it was, but Iggy never really felt comfortable around Mom. He loved her and everything, but you could tell that he was always tense around her. God knows why.

"Come on." Fang said stiffly, but I could tell he was trying to be nice, but he was never really one for kindness. Actually, today shocked me pretty bad, he talked more today than he ever talked in his whole life! I ran up to him, and then we walked to the others.

"Guys, Max has something she wants to tell you guys, but you guys have to stay calm. If you guys lose your minds we might as well go turn ourselves in to the cops. Get it? Got it? Good." The others looked confused by his this, but they nodded anyways.

I took a deep breath, "Okay, you guys. My mom won't ever be coming back, she's never been late before, and since she is now, the only thing that we can assume is that she got caught," I turned to look at Iggy, and he looked as though he was trying to keep himself from crying. He has always tried to be strong, and I admire him for that, but right now, I just wanted to hug him and let him sob into my shoulder. Nudge and Angel, noticing this, walked up to him, and each held one of his hands and walked him to the couch and told him to sit down. He sat. It's always great to think that they actually think about each other as a family. In the beginning everyone but Fang and myself would fight with each other, but now they are all the best of friends. Okay, I didn't fight with Fang because I was afraid of him. He was a very terrifying child. Every time I looked at him, I literally saw my life flash before my eyes. It was, like, two seconds and I still got bored in the middle. Haha, kidding! Wow, how can I crack jokes at a time like this? I continued, as though I didn't just make a joke about how pathetically boring my life was, "Since she's never going to be coming back in, we have enough food and supplies to last us only three months. No more, no less. And, now that they caught her, they'll know a little bit about us, so we have to sharpen our skills.

"I mean, look at me, I can walk through solid objects, and sometimes it doesn't work and I end up running into a wall and giving myself a headache. You guys remember that time I broke my nose? And what about my forcefields, they can't last longer than 30 seconds. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. I know that I definitely need to do something about that. We don't know how much longer we can go before we get caught, but whenever that happens, we need to be ready. Fang, what do you need to improve on?" One by one, I was going to ask each of them what they needed to improve on. If they had a goal that they were aiming for, it would definitely help us.

I could tell Fang really didn't wan to to do this, but one glare from me, and he started talking, "I need to improve my skill to manipulate darkness. Anything that I make always evaporates in a minute. If we're going to fight, I'm going to need to make a weapon that doesn't evaporate the second it makes contact with something else."

"Um...okay, just don't make anything too lethal. Alright?" I looked at him, and he just shrugged. Wow, do my words mean nothing to him? "Okay then, Iggy? How about you?"

"I need to improve my aim. Um...if that's possible, since my aim is already so totally awesome. Have you ever seen me throw my Swiss Army Knife, or anything at all. I never miss, well, okay, I might miss once in a while, but that's why I need to practice, right?" I nodded at him. For someone who was thirteen, he was so immature, it's cute.

"Nudge?"

"I need to learn to control my poison. I mean this is totally crazy, I can't even touch anything because if I do then it gets poisoned. How sucky is that?! Like, do you remember that time I touched a flower without my gloves on? It was so pretty and it totally wilted. I want to learn to control my powers because I'm tired of wearing my gloves and-" I looked over and saw that Iggy slapped his hand over her mouth, and I gave him a grateful look.

"Gaz?"

"I need to control my fire and learn how to not start forest fires. I mean seriously, who starts forest fires?" Oh, I don't know. You? I chose not to say that.

"Good. Angel?"

"I just want some sort of power. I have nothing. I have nothing but wings that I can't even use." She demonstrated by flapping her wings up and down, but only getting a foot off the ground.

"Then that could be what you should try to improve on, try and get higher than three feet off of the ground, like your brother." I motioned with a hand to Gazzy, who spread out his wigs to their full length, looking proud. I wanted him to always look like that.

"Okay." She nodded at me, and gave me an adorable little smile that melted my heart. Honestly, she could probably make the most evil person on the planet turn good with that smile. Oh, and the Bambi eyes wouldn't go amiss.

Fang looked at me and asked, "So, when do we start?"

"Right now. Guys, grab whatever you'll need and meet me in the backyard." And with that, I gave them one last look, turned to the wall, concentrated, and walked right through it. Yes, it worked!

 **So... How was it. Review! *Bambi eyes***

 **fly on,**

 **Demonic Angel**


	5. Chapter 4

It's been a whole strongthree/strong months since my mother was captured, or what we assume to be captured, but we still weren't sure. I never tell the others, but deep down, I still felt a flicker of hope every now and then. I guess I just really wished she were alive. But heck, could you blame be? She is my mom after all. Anyways, I must say, over these past months, we've made incredible progress. I've improved my forcefields, they now last for an incredibly long time before they disappear. But the sucky thing is, the bigger the force field, the hickey it'll vanish. And as for my ability to walk through solid objects, let's just say I've gotten better, since it still doesn't work sometimes. But at least I dont end up giving myself a concussion. And yes, I have done that before, Fang never really let me live that down.

But Fang has done incredibly. He got the ability to become a shadow for as long as he likes, but it does drain him if his energy. If there's a shadow around, he can just melt right into it. There was this one time I told him to stop playing with darkness, and he was all like, "I am Darkness." Now, he's become super annoying. He'll just pop up out of a wall. There was this one time Iggy was trying to teach me to cook, since I probably couldn't cook for my life, and while I was mixing the batter for the chocolate chip cookies, Fang just appeared behind me, took the mixing thingy, and ran away. I literally chased after him for ever, but it wasn't exactly fair, since he kept on disappearing and popping up somewhere else. Anyways, he also figured out a way to manipulate darkness to help him create more useful things that even last for as long as he wants, weapons, though not guns, since I'm violently opposed to them, considering how many times they have been used against us while we were just outside walking, trying to get our minds off of our craptastic situation. But there was this one time that I walked outside because I kept hearing loud noises, and I found him standing there, aiming a black gun at a tree and shooting at will. Needless to say, I flipped, and then he just looked at me with a stupid smirk on his face, and just asked me what I had against guns. So, of course, I got super pissed, and went up to him and slapped him across the face, and he suddenly got all emotionless, like he used to be years ago. The light in his eyes from a few moments ago had completely vanished. Now, he just looked. . . dead. I hadn't even slapped him hard, but he just looked at me with a completely impassive face. I had apologized to him a bunch of times, and he told me he had accepted it, but I kind of felt like he didn't, but when I gave him a quick hug-pat-on-the-back thing that guys do, he did look a little happier. I was embarrassed at first, thinking he'd make fun of me, but he was totally calm about it. So we're good./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Gazzy learned to control his fire power. Before he'd just run into the woods, and accidentally start a forest fire, although I doubt it ever really was an accident. But now he's gotten the hang of how to make it work out. We've even had a few campfires right outside the house. Nudge, however, remained the same as she ever was, she didn't learn to control her poison, so she's stuck wearing her leather gloves for who knows how long. Which she is incredibly pissed about.

Angel, however, has changed a bit over these past three months, I have to say, I think she has a very useful skill. Angel only just got her first ability, well, other than her flying. I'm not sure if that's really a power, since she's always had her wings. Anyways, her power is sensing weaknesses, but she must be careful when she uses her powers, so that her enemy doesn't realize what she trying to do. Basically, if she were to touch a person, she can sort of FEEL things. She can feel a person's weaknesses, for example, she figured out that Fang's weakness is the colour white. I don't know what that's about, nobody but Angel and I know about that. One day, Angel was holding his hand, and she just felt something, that's when she developed her first power. She told me that she just saw a burst of white in the back of her mind when she touched his hand, and it left as quickly as came. I later asked Fang about it, and the moment I mentioned what Angel had seen, he became white as paper. All the blood seemed to drain from his face, and his eyes got a haunted, distant look. I talked to him for a moment, then he turned to me and glared, and seriously, if I had a glass of water with me, it would have turned to ice. But when I pressed him a little, he told me that he couldn't stand the colour white, just the thought of it makes him feel uncomfortable, but when I asked him why, he wouldn't tell, but still, I have a sort of feeling about this.

Even though he is a Blood, like me, I met Nudge before I met him, even though they are siblings. I had met Nudge the day she was born, her parents gave her to my mother, Katie Forester, who gave her to me to take care of, Fang, however, I met when he was five. I don't know why, but one day he showed up at the front of our house saying that a women named Katie Forester had found him, figured out what he was, and told him to stay in this house with a girl named Maximum Ride, which obviously is me. He said that he was also told that he had a sister named Nudge who also stayed with us. I don't know why we didn't get him a few months after he was born, I mean obviously not the day he was born, since I'm not older than him, but maybe when we were both a few months old, back when my mom used to stay and take care of us, she made us live on our own since I was three. Crazy, right?

Anyways, every time I had tried to ask Fang the reason he showed when he was five years old, rather than a few months, he would never answer, he would just turn away from me, or get very interested in his shoes, or just completely ignore my existence in general. To some other person, he would have looked impassive, but I've known him so long, and he's my best friend, so I know him better than that. I can see even the slightest twitch of his shoulders, the slightest clench of his jaw. Whatever he doesn't want anyone to see, I can see it. But one thing is for sure, if there was ever something bothering him, I wouldn't force him to tell me, because I know that he would tell me when he's ready. You can never force a person into doing anything.

But one thing is scaring me, yes, I know, something scaring Maximum Ride! Ugh, just shoot me now. Fang isn't afraid of anything, he's the toughest person I know, so the idea that white is his biggest fear, I'm not sure if I want to know what happened to him to make him feel that way. I also found out my weakness, that I actually never knew I had, I was afraid of spiders. Who knew, right? Well, okay, I knew, but I'm supposed to be the fearless leader, so I never told anyone, but now Angel knows, but she doesn't hold that against me, she just told me that everyone is afraid of something, but only to be fair, I had actually told Fang of my fear. Since I know his, it's only fair that he knows mine. Now Angel is the only odd man, um, women, er, girl out. No one knows her fears, for an eight year old, she's pretty brave. But I'm onto her.

So, to sum it all up, I can create force fields and walk through solid objects, Fang can manipulate darkness and become a shadow. Iggy has killer aim. Gazzy learned to control his fire. Nudge remained the same, and Angel learned to sense weaknesses, but the most important lesson I taught them was to never trust anyone. Not that they didn't know that before.


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey so, I'm back with another chapter. Enjoy!**

Chapter Five

Anyways, like I said earlier, it's been three months. If you've read what I said a few chapters ago, you would know that I said we had enough food to last us three months, yeah, well, guess what. Three months are over, and we have, what, enough food left to make one burger? Yup, we totally need to stock up. Unless, of course, I make myself the burger and leave the others to starve. Hmmm. That's not such a bad idea. Nah, I'm just kidding. But I had you going there for a second, didn't I?

Me, being the idiot I am, realized the food shortage only now, rather than earlier, so now I really need to go buy us something to eat. So, I walked up to Fang's room, but before going in, I knocked on the door. Their had been this one time I walked in without knocking and I saw him sprawled out on his bed, but sleeping silently, as in without snoring, not that I snore, of course. Anyways, so his door creaks a little so he heard and instantly jumped up-he's a very light sleeper, even the slightest noise wakes him up- and he saw me standing in front of his room, so he just ran all over his room cleaning stuff up. Trying to throw his clothes that were sprawled on the bed into his closet. Sure his room was messy, but did he really think that I actually cared? Nah, not really, but apparently he thought I did. So, anyways I knocked on his door, and I heard him answer, his voice barely a whisper, "Come in." So I walked into his room and I saw him lying on his bed, looking as though he was just asleep. "Sis, if you came to ask me to teach you how to control your power, I already told you, I can't." I didn't answer. "Nudge, I'm talking to you." I still didn't say anything. "Nudge?" He finally looked up, "Max?"

"No, it's the devil and I have come to take your soul." I said, sarcasm dripping from my words, but I didn't mean it in a rude way, it was just meant to be a joke. Hopefully he knew that.

"No-I mean yeah-I mean, I know it's you, I just wasn't expecting that," He said, jumping up, trying to clean his room. Deja vu.

"I kind of noticed. And, you know I don't really care if your room is all cleaned up or not, right? I only tell the little kids to do that, that rule doesn't apply to us."

"Yeah, I know, but still."

"Okay. Anyways, I had to tell you something."

"What's up?"

"Three month," He gave me a blank look, "Three months are up. We're out of food. We need to go out and buy some more. Mom left some money, I was thinking you and I could go into town, and leave Iggy and Nudge in charge."

"Yes to Iggy, no to Nudge. If we left her in charge, we can expect to come home, and find it painted pink." True, true.

I nodded at him. "Sure, we can leave Iggy in charge, I'm going to go tell him."

"Want me to come?" He looked a little...hopeful?

"Nah, you should figure out a way for us to cover our ears." I said, pulling on one of my ears slightly. He nodded at me. I walked out of his room closing the door, and headed to my little bro's room. Once I get there, I didn't even bother knocking, I just walked in. I found him lying on his stomach, reading a book. The funniest thing was, his tail was wagging, that's one way for me to know that he was enjoying the book he was reading. "Hey, bro." He doesn't usually read, but when he does, he gets really into it.

"'Sup, Maxie." Yes, he called me Maxie, and as much as I hate the nickname, I let him call me that. But no one else can call me that. Besides, he only uses it when no one else is around. If Fang heard him call me "Maxie", you have no idea how much teasing that would result in.

"What book are you reading?"

"It's called 'Miss Peregrine's home fo-"

"For Peculiar Children?" He nodded his head. "You do know that they turned it into a movie, you could just go watch it downstairs, or borrow Fang's laptop." Yup, Fang has a laptop, my mother got it for his birthday last year. And as much as he loves his laptop, he still lets us use it as long as we promise not to wreck it. He is a little overprotective of his laptop. There was this one time Angel got a scratch on his screen and he gave her a two hour lecture, which resulted in her crying her eyes out, and me screaming at Fang.

"No, I want to read the book first, the books are always more interesting."

"Sure, whatever you say. Anyways, Fang and I are going out to buy some food since we've run out, and I'm leaving you in charge. And yes, only you, you're the oldest. After Fang and myself of course. So what I'm trying to say is that I'm going out and I'm leaving you in charge."

"No." What the...?

"Excuse me."

"No, you aren't going outside. Neither is Fang. If you go out I'll lose you too, just like mom. They'll find you, they'll-" He faltered for a moment, "do really bad things to you. And then I'll never see you again. But that's not happening, I'm not going to let you go." His eyes looked crazed, as though he was begging me to understand. Begging me not to go. Begging me to stay by his side.

"Listen, if we all stayed and just sat around doing nothing, we'd all die from starvation. We're out of food, and we need to buy more. Okay?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment, but then gave a heavy sigh. Meaning he'd given in."Fine, just promise you'll come back."

"I'll try, buddy. I'll try." I was about to tell him that I would, I was about to promise, but then I remembered. You just can't lie to family. No matter how harsh the truth is. I can lie, heck, we all can. We lie like there's no tomorrow, but one thing none of us can stand is lying to each other. If it's something small, then who cares? But if it's something big, then we just find ourselves incapable of concealing it from each other. Except for Fang, he's come to trust us a bit more, but you can tell that he has a secret. And it's a dark one, the kind that eats you up on the inside. You mark my words.

 **Ooh cliffs! What do you think Fang's secret is? If anyone can guess it, I'll give you a cookie. And that is a big sacrifice on my part. But alright, I know the characters are a little OOC, especially Iggy, but it all helps to make up the plot of the story. And yes, there is a plot. Keep reading. Review please 3**

 **Fly on,**

 **DemonicAngel**


	7. Chapter 6

**So, hey, it's been a while, but no worries, I won't give up on this story. It's just that I'm so busy. First though, big thanks to pinfeather for being my very first reviewer. Here, have a cookie (::). get yourself ready for Fang's secret. But be careful, it isn't fairy-land. Also, Princess Puffin, thanks for the constructive criticism. Finally, to ITeX: Nudge wishes your sister a happy birthday! Even though it isn't her birthday today, but still! Anyways, onward!**

Chapter Six

"Why are you giving me a baseball cap to wear, it's not too sunny outside?" I asked Fang, who, obviously, was holding a baseball cap in his outstretched hand.

"Cover your ears." Was all he said.

"Fine, whatever." I said, snatching the cap from him.

So anyways, after a little bit of struggling I finally managed to get my ears into my cap, which is quite difficult. A lot of the time I spent wondering how he did it. My ears kept on poking out of somewhere, when I noticed Fang staring at me with a strange look crossing his features, "Oh, what now?" I asked with exaggerated patience.

"Funny, seeing you struggle like that." Wow, nice to know someone truly cares. Honestly, seeing how much he cares about me just makes me tear up. My little baby is growing up so fast. Yeah, my baby who also happens to be older than me. Okay, well maybe he isn't a baby, but he is my best friend, so that still counts. Right? Riiiiiiight? No? No one? Okay then.

"Whatever, let's just go." I looked over at him and he just nodded. So with that we both walked to the front of the house and stepped out. I have to admit, I was a little nervous, I haven't ever been in the city in, well, forever. I've never been there. I looked over at Fang to see if he was feeling anything similar, but judging from his face, he looked as calm as ever, but I could see through his mask, he was just as nervous as I was. Oh well. So much for expecting moral support. But seriously though, looking at him, you'd think that he was just your average teenage boy whose mother had told him to go out and buy groceries. Which was probably exactly the look he was going for.

Okay, I'm going to spare you all of the unbelievably boring details about us going grocery shopping. But seriously, how do you people manage it, it's so stupid and annoying. The dumb cashiers try so had to make conversations, but they just didn't understand that I DIDN'T WANT TO TALK TO THEM. Anyways, I'll just tell you the main thing. We went to different places, bought some food, some stupid guys and girls tried to tall to us, but we simply told them to get lost, ans with a few glares from Fang, they ran away, and by the time we were done buying enough food to last us another three months, we started walking home, when something caught my eye. A TV, showing a news reporter, but that's not what was important, on the corner of the screen was a picture of my mother. Huh? I wonder what that's about. My mom didn't do anything wrong. Except for, you know, illegally taking care of a bunch of children that should be dead. But other than that, she didn't so anything. Besides, even that isn't that bad. I bet there are a ton of criminals in the states. Go after them, will ya?

"Fang, look at that." I whispered, pointing at the TV. He probably would have disregarded what I'd said, if not for the hint of urgency in my voice.

He turned his head to look at what I was talking about, and when he saw the picture of my mom, I saw his eyes widen a fraction of an inch. His version of complete astonishment. He turned to me and said, "Let's see what this is about."I nodded at him

The lady on the TV started to talk, and we remained frozen like ice sculptures. With every word she said, the paler my face became. The women kept on talking. She was saying stuff about how it's been three months since Katie Forester, my mother, had been executed for knowing about the existence of "vicious and cruel" Bloods, yet not telling anyone about them. She was killed, but her husband, my dad, Jeb Forester was not because he claimed to know nothing about how his wife had been caring for Bloods, he apparently always assumed that every time my mom left the house she was going to work. The women also spoke about what a "hero" Jeb Forester was, because the moment he found out what his wife had been doing he had immediately notified the police. Geez, dad, thanks, totally feeling the love here. Please tell me how it is legal to call you a father, turning your own daughter in. Ugh. Can I please throw you off of an astronomy tower. Unlike Gazzy and Angel, you won't be able to fly back up. And I will happily watch your fall, with a cold satisfaction.

So, after the long bit of trash about what a hero my dad was, they started to talk about how, after three months of searching, they finally found a lead. One day, while the police officers were looking through the woods, to see if they could find out where the Bloods (aka- me and my little band of merry mutants) lived, they were walking back after hours of searching, when they came across a black rubber ball and a few arrows. When she said this, I turned to glare at Fang, and I saw that he also had a guilty look on his face. Yeah, the black rubber ball that they found, it's his, he made it, you know, out of darkness. And the arrows that they found, they belong to my brother, he's been practicing archery. He actually made his own bow and arrow. I have to talk to him about leaving his things lying around. You never know who might find them.

After she talked about the mysterious objects showing up in the middle of the woods, she said that if anyone should ever come across a Blood, they must immediately notify the police, but they mustn't approach them because they are extremely dangerous and could kill a man with a single glance. When she said this, I saw Fang turn his head, for a moment I thought he was scared or something, until I saw his shoulders shaking, he always laughing, and I have to admit, so was I. I mean, were they serious? Kill a man just by looking at them? Talk about pathetic. Bibitty-freaking-babitty-effing-boo. But then what they showed after scared me so freakin bad, man. They showed pictures. Like real pictures of all the stuff they had found. Of they just said the stuff,people might now have believed them, but they actually had evidence. One picture was a blurry image of a pair of big grey wings that were much to big to belong to a bird, but that's not all, the wings had small feet wearing ballerina shoes sticking out of the bottom. Angel. Next they showed the picture of the ball and arrows that they found. Fang and Iggy. After that they showed a picture of a bunch of arrows stuck in a tree branch. Iggy, again. Then they showed a picture of an area on a tree where the bark was chipped off, the area looked about the size of a fist. And not just any fist, my fist. They got a picture proving my existence. How was I supposed to tell the others to be careful, when I myself am such a careless little kid? I suck. Just don't tell Fang I said that, he'd tease me senseless.

Well, once I saw that picture, I just couldn't bare to see any more, but I couldn't turn away either. More pictures just kept showing up on the screen, and the more showed up, the whiter my skin was getting. Then suddenly I felt a pair of calloused hands grab my sleeve and pull me away from there. I was about to hesitate when I heard a voice, "We have to get out of here."

"Fang?"

"No, it's Pinocchio. Let's just go." When he said that, I would have nodded, but I couldn't move, I was literally frozen, so Fang rought grabbed me my sleeve and dragged me all the way. There were a few times when I was going to complain about how rough he was being, but you know what? Screw it.

When we arrived home he he let my sleeve go and opened the door to the house, he was about to turn around probably to drag me in again, but I finally came out of shock and ran in the house and shouted, "Everyone come here now!" Everyone came.

 **Review!**

 **Fly on**


	8. Chapter 7

**Look who's back and updating pretty fast. Well, okay, not that fast, but still. I have been pretty busy, going to people's houses and stuff, and then just this morning I got my cartilage piercing, and seriously, it looks so cool. So, yeah, be glad I was feeling joyous today. also, I'm just gonna tell you now, starting from this chapter, there will be other PoV's, but they will all be in third person. I feel like it seems better if only Max's POV is in first person. Let me know if I should keep doing this, or if everyone's POV should be first person** **.**

Chapter Seven

All the kids ran into the room and I was immediately blasted with questions. Making my head explode.

"Max, Fang, what happened?"

"Are you guys okay?"

"What took so long?"

"Why didn't you come home sooner?"

"Max, why do you look so pale?"

"Fang, what's going on?"

But I couldn't answer all of the questions, it was just too much to handle, not when my mind was buzzing with questions of its own.

 **Fang's P.O.V.**

Fang looked over at Max, hoping to see a little bit of how she felt, but instead, he drew up a blank. Of course she probably felt like killing a few thousand people, but she didn't look that way. She looked like she didn't care, but of course she did. He wondered if that was what he always looked like. Probably.

She clearly couldn't answer their questions, she probably had questions of her own. Fang knew he did. Just by hearing all that stuff on the news, he can't help but feel like tearing her father apart limb from limb. And then expecting a full hand shake. Oh wait, he wouldn't be able to shake hands because his limbs would be gone. Max was a pretty great friend, Fang could only imagine that she was a great daughter too. He couldn't believe her father sold her out. What kind of a crappy dad was he? What did Max ever do to make him hate her? He'd never even met her before, right? How would he feel if just the concept of his existence was forbidden. And what about Iggy? That man probably didn't even know that he had a son. Fang wanted so badly to slap the guy.

"Guys," Fang said, trying to get the kids to let Max breathe a bit, "Give her a minute."

"No Fang," Max said, her voice was quiet, "they need to know what happened, we can't keep it from them. Especially Iggy. This affects the two of us the most. Alright you guys, listen up." Okay then. What Fang never understood was why she always did this toherself. She knew that it was difficult for her, so why did she do this? Why did she torture herself like this? Gosh, she is so stubborn. Whatever. Ugh. Screw it.

For about half an hour the kids were all sitting on the floor, while Max and Fang sat on the couch. Max was telling them what they had heard on the news, but Fang would cut in every now and then, filling in spots of the story that she'd forgotten. When she was done, everyone looked like they were on the verge of breaking. Angel was sitting in Nudge's lap, crying all over her shirt. But Nudge didn't seem to care, she was also crying while stroking Angel's hair. Gazzy was clutching a pillow as though his life was connected to it. Fang could swear he had heard him say, "No good Max's stupid dad. You're so mean. Max and Iggy deserve better." So true. He turned to look at Max and he could see she was trying not to cry, she was trying to be the brave leader that the kids saw her as. And it killed hting im to see her like that. He was about to put his arms around her, but then realized what strange looks he'd get. He wouldn't be able to do that, that wasn't how he rolled. So instead, he leaned over to her than quietly whispered, "You know, even leaders can juse ignore leading sometimes too." He didn't want her to cry, but sometimes the pain just spills out with every tear that falls. He knew that better than anyone. Not that the others knew about that. But she didn't seem to hear him, she was watching Iggy. Which annoyed him slightly. Iggy wasn't the only one who had suffered a loss. All of them had. Fang kind of wished Max would stop treating Iggy like he was the only one that mattered. All of the kids were upset about this.

Fang turned to look at Iggy. He looked as though he was ready to kill someone, tears streaking his face, and at his sides, his hands were clenching and unclenching. "Dad, I can't believe you. I hate you. I may be your son, but I'll make you pay. No one hurts Max." Wow, looks like someone is up for revenge, Fang had thought that he was the only one. But then something unexpected happened. Max jumped off the couch and ran into her room, but before she left, Fang heard a sob. She was crying. Then with a loud bang, she slammed her door shut, trying to cut herself off from the rest of the world. Cut herself off from them. Off from him.

Fang was about to get up and follow her, but Iggy got up before he did, but he also saw that he was half way up. He looked at him then snarled, "She's my sister, I'm going after her. All of you, stay away from her. She's felt enough pain, she doesn't need you hurting her too. Don't touch her." His voice was filled with nothing but hostility. What he had said hurt Fang so much that he flinched at his every word. He also felt like somebody had stabbed him, right through the chest. What the hell was that about? Iggy was usually quite sweet, despite his stupid jokes every now and then. With that Iggy left and followed his sister into her room. But right before he left, he turned to glare at everyone, as though daring them to follow him, or try to stop him. No one did. As much as Fang wanted to go and be there for Max, he remained in his seat. Maybe some time away from him was what she needed. Some time with no one but her brother.

 **So, how was the Fang POV. So, yeah, this one was a filler chapter more than an action one, but don't worry, action is well on its way, just a few more chapters. Review! *gets Angel and Nudge to do the Bambi Eyes* How can you say no to that?**

 **Fly on,**

 **DemonicAngel**


	9. Chapter 8

**I am proud to say that I am updating pretty fast. I don't really have much to say, so... onward!**

 **Iggy's P.O.V.**

Iggy saw Fang getting up from his seat, he was going to follow her. Who did that guy think he was? If Fang had really wanted his sister to feel better, he wouldn't have just stood there and made her watch that stupid news report. Where was his brain when that happened? He should have just told her to ignore it and come home, but no. He had to stand there and watch the stupid thing. And now he was about to go make HIS sister feel better because of something that was practically his own fault. Yeah, how about no? If he cared, he wouldn't have let her see that. He would have brought her back home, even if he had to drag her, which, according to Max, he did.

He turned to look at Fang, then he did something he'd never done to Fang before. He snarled at him, Iggy usually much more kind then that, but Fang had hurt his sister. Nobody hurts his sister. Nobody. "She's my sister, I'm going after her. All of you, stay away from her. She's felt enough pain, she doesn't need you hurting her too. Don't touch her." Iggy could see on Fang's face how what he had said hurt him, he visibly flinched. Wow, Mr. Show No Emotions flinched, this is a historical moment. It did upset Iggy to see that Fang was hurt by what he had said, but for him, Max came before anyone else. She took care of him, not his mother, not his father, not Fang. Maximum Ride, she took care of him ever since he was little. She loved him, she was all the family he had. Fang and the others, they weren't his family, they acted like it, but family is supposed to be blood, not friendship. They weren't his family. And they never would be. No matter what.

Iggy got up and ran after Max. When he stopped in front of her door, he was about to go in, but then thought better of it and knocked. Then he heard an unusually high pitch scream from her room. It took him a moment to realize it was Max, "Go away, Fang. I don't want to talk to you!" Ouch. She thought Fang was going to come after her, Iggy didn't blame her, Fang was her best friend. They got along well, because they were both the oldest and they knew that they had to take care of all the rest.

"It's not Fang, it's me, Iggy."

"Iggy, I don't want to talk to anyone. Please. Go away." She begged.

"Please, this is hard for me too, but we have to stick together, mom wouldn't want us to give up. "

"Fine." Iggy heard her get up and open her door and he went in, "Iggy, how are the others doing?"

He looked at her face and saw that her eyes were all red and her face was streaked with tears. She had been crying. Just like everyone else was. Everyone but Fang. "The younger ones are crying, and Fang is just sitting there, like always." He said the last bit with a hint of disgust in my voice. And he made sure that Max heard it too. Iggy didn't know why, but he didn't trust Fang, not the way he trusted everyone else. There was something wrong with Fang. Max just didn't see it.

"What do we do?" She was asking him what to do, she was supposed to be the one TELLING him what to do. What had the world come to? But at least she was asking him. Usually she just jumped into things without even taking a moment to consider them. It was one of the things Iggy loved about his sister. She worked well under pressure. But then again, sometimes, she was just careless and reckless.

"I don't know, we run I suppose. According to you, they found a bunch of evidence proving our existence. They'll know that we're near by. They'll come, find us, and kill us. Or we can run." Personally, Iggy liked the latter.

"Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when you told me what to do. What has the world come to?" She asked, voicing his earlier thoughts, trying to make things a little funny. "If we stay here, there would end up being lots of death."

"Oh," Iggy was going to stop there, but then saw the look on her face, "um- I mean, lots of death! Woo hoo! Yeah, let's do this! I love lots of death!"

Max looked like she was about to laugh, but then she saw that Iggy was being completely serious. Her face twisted into an expression of horror, "Oh my gosh, Iggy no. Lots of death is bad."

"Huh? Oh! Oh yeah. I knew that."

Max shook her head, but a smile was playing on her rosy lips, "Let's go tell the others."

"Okay. Come on." Then Iggy walked up to her and held her hand. Iggy had noticed how she looked at him surprised, but then quickly relaxed and gripped his hand tighter. Iggy took it a step further by intertwining their fingers. She still didn't pull back, which made Iggy smile down at her. She smiled back. Despite being younger than her, he was a good few inches taller than her. Which Max simply hated. He hadn't held her hand ever since he was five, and it felt kind of nice. Like she was his sister, and no one could take her away. Not even Fang. No matter how hard he tried. But Iggy knew it wouldn't last. Nothing good ever did. The moment they stepped out of her room, it would all come back. Even Fang. As much as Iggy wished he didn't.

 **Okay, now how was that? You got to see a bit into Iggy's head, and even he knows something is up with Fang, he just doesn't know what it is. And you also got to see his brotherly side more closely. I tried to make this chapter a bit more sweet, but with a bit of a twist at the end.**

 **Fly on**


	10. Chapter 9

**Okay, this chapter moves along a little fast, but bare with me, I have to go somewhere so I wrote this in a hurry.**

Fang's P.O.V.

It had been quite a while since Iggy and Max had been talking. Fang didn't hear anything except for the part when Max had screamed telling him to go away, even though it wasn't him, it had been Iggy. It hurt him to know Max had thought he was going to get her, when instead, her brother had been the one to go after her. Even though it made sense, it still felt wrong to him. Like he was the one who should have gotten up. It made his stomach hurt. Yup, Max had definitely poisoned him. Now Fang was sitting on the couch, waiting to see what would happen. The kids weren't even holding back, they were crying as though they had lost their mom, which he supposed they kind of did. But he was wondering how Max was doing, he knew how Iggy was doing. Iggy showed him how he felt. He had clearly told him to stay away from him and his sister, and Fang didn't really blame him at all. If Fang really hadn't wanted to hurt her he would have dragged her away from there before she could have see too much, but he didn't. He stood there and watched, not even thinking about how much worse it was for her and Iggy. If it was upsetting for him, it must've been simply heartbreaking for them. It was probably-

"Guys," he would recognize that voice anywhere. Max. She was out of her room. Iggy could seriously work wonders sometimes. Fang looked up at her and almost jumped when he saw her. Her eyes were all red and puffy from crying. Whoa, she never cries, now he knew how much her mother had meant to her. Fang had always assumed that a mother meant a lot to her kids, but he never really realized how much. He never had a mother when he was a child. When he was a child, he had a living nightmare, "Grab anything you think you might need. It has to be something you can carry. No cans, nothing is heavier than cans."

Angel looked at her with her eyes wide and scared, "Why? Where are we going?"

"We're leaving, sweetie. We can't stay here, they'll find us. They know we're here, they'll come for us, they'll hurt us, they'll do awful stuff to us."

Angel looked at her, "They'll kill us, won't they."

"Sweetie-"

"You don't have to lie to me, Max. I'm a big girl. And I would feel better if you didn't just leave me in the dark."

"I'm sorry sweetie."

"It's okay, I was just saying."

"So, like I was saying, everyone go grab something that you think you might need." And with that, everyone ran in different directions, while he and Max sat their, waiting for the others to come back.

He turned to look at her, "So…"

"So what?"

"How're you holding up?"

"Do you want me to lie, or do you want the truth?" Fang gave her an exasperated look, "I was just asking. And honestly, I'm doing terribly. All this time, I still had a little hope that she might still be alive. And now this just feels like a slap in the face." He nodded at her, "Fang, can I ask you something?"

"You just did. However you can ask me another thing."

He said it as a joke, but she looked completely serious, "Do you ever wish you knew your mother?"

He tensed up, but quickly composed himself and went back to his emotionless mask, "Not really," He was lying, "I guess I actually hate her." Another lie. "If she ever loved me she wouldn't have given me away." But she didn't give him away, "she would have kept me and raised me as her own son, despite the risks." And she was willing to, "She would have raised me the way your mother raised you."

Max looked at him with sad eyes, "Oh Fang, maybe she did want to keep you, but her husband was a stupid idiot like my dad is and didn't let her."

"Maybe." No, that wasn't how it was at all.

"Fang?" He turned to look at her, "do you ever regret meeting us? I mean, you always act so quiet, like you'd rather be anywhere else in the world. I'm just saying that sometimes I feel like you hate me-"

She didn't get to finish because Fang quickly reached up and grabbed his hair, tugging on it slightly. The way he always did when he was angry or confused. "Dammit, Max. No I don't regret meeting you guys. And I don't hate you. I never could. Even if you did poison me that one time you tried to cook" At this she gave him a funny look. "You are all my-" Fang struggled to find the word, "friends." He concluded a little hesitantly. Max then looked at him and gave him a slow smile.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Iggy came into the room carrying a blue backpack and made a very big point by coughing as though his lungs were in fire. Fang kind of wished they were. Iggy always ruined the moment. Then he walked over to them and sat in between both of them and, when Max looked away, sent a quick glare at Fang. What the hell?

They all sat there silently, until Nudge came into the room with a purple bag slung over her shoulders, and Fang silently thanked her. He usually loved the silence, but this one had been freakishly awkward.

"Hey. Aren't Angel and Gazzy back yet? Wonder what they're getting? Probably some toys or something. You guys, I don't think that Angel and Gazzy should bring anything, what if they can't carry it? We'd have to leave it behind, but I don't see why we should have to do that, since it's our stuff. So-"

"We're here!" Gazzy and Angel burst into the living room. Angel with a pink backpack, and Gazzy with a green.

"Guys, I don't think you two should bring those, I'm not sure you'll be able to carry it." Max said, repeating what Nudge had said earlier. Nudge looked pleased that Max had listened to her. She was trying to sound gentle, but Fang could hear the authority hidden in her voice.

Gazzy looked up at her and was about to argue, but Angel cut in, "Sure thing, Max. Come on Gazzy." And with that Angel turned around and dragged Gazzy into the room to put their bags back. They came back two seconds later, and Gazzy was clutching something in his hand.

"I know you said not to bring anything, but can I please bring this." He held up a wooden toy soldier. It had been the only thing he had when he had come to live here. The only reminder that he still had a real family. Max nodded at him and a huge grin spread over his face, "thanks Max!" But Fang couldn't help but notice the sad look on Angel's face. She didn't have anything to remind her of her family.

As though reading his mind she turned and smiled at him, "It's okay." She whispered, but Fang knew it wasn't, but didn't press the matter.

Max opened her mouth to speak, but Fang cut her off, "Do you hear that?" She gave him a blank look, "I hear something. Listen."

She tilted her head slightly, and he saw her eyes widen, then she whispered ever so quietly, "There's someone out there. Outside the house." When she said that, all of the kids looked as though their worst nightmares had just been confirmed.

Max and Fang looked at each other and shared the same look. Already knowing what she was about to do, he dropped to the ground and crawled over to the window, with Max right next to him. They made their way to the window, moved the curtain a bit, than peaked out just from the corner, and then what they saw literally his daylights for him. He looked over at Max right when she opened her mouth to scream. Faster than Fang would have thought possible, he covered her mouth with his hand, but you see, the thing was, he did it so fast he kind of slapped her. She just turned and glared at him, and he was immediately glad looks couldn't kill, or else he would have been dead. When he removed his hand, her face had the mark of a hand across her mouth. He looked at her guiltily and she just gave him such an angry look, rolled her eyes than turned back to the window to see the police officers surrounding their house.

 **This chapter moved fast and was a little useless, but i added some important stuff in their. Not to mention the little twist at the end.**

 **Fly on**


	11. Chapter 10

**Okay, now I'm either going to update really fast, or really slow. But don't worry, that weirdness will only be for about a week. Exams are coming up, so I'm getting a little stressed. We just had our foreign language exam today and I swear, it was so weird, none of it made any sense to me. Our next exam is in three day, this one was early because we begged our teacher to give it to us early to save us from learning more of that stuff. I was pretty surprised when he agreed. I was sure he was gonna tell us to shut up.**

Chapter Ten

Max's P.O.V.

I gave Fang and angry look then turned back to look at the officers surrounding our house. I must say, some of them looked pretty young, like they were just starting out. Okay, they would be a breeze. And then their are some stronger guys... who will also be a breeze. Humans are so weak, honestly, there's only about ten to fifteen guys out there. That's sad. It's as though they underestimate us. Um hurt, never underestimate the power of a pissed off Max. Heck, fifty people would be a walk in the park for us. Well, okay, maybe not fifty people, but you get the idea. From what it looked like, they were looking for some kinks in our armour, they were trying to find a way in without us noticing. Ah, poor, stupid humans. Little did they know that we already knew that they were out there, see I told you having animal ears was a huge advantage, they are incredibly useful. Fang and I can hear things from a mile away, yeah, we're just that awesome. Okay, well, not him, he slapped me, I knew he meant well, but it hurt. And what the hell was that about me poisoning him? If I didn't know any better, I'd have said he was drunk. But I did know better. But I do intend to find out why he thinks I poisoned him. I mean, sure, he annoys me sometimes, but I would never poison him. As much as I wanted to at times.

I turned around to look at my little family, Fang looked like he was just told that Nudge had poisoned a flower again, killing it, in other words, he looked like he didn't care, but he did. The kids, however, looked terrified, and I didn't blame them, I had almost screamed. But not from fear, more from shock. "Iggy, take the kids to that cave we found a few weeks after mom was taken. I want all of you to stay there, until we come and get you." I instructed.

"Wait, what? Where are you going. And what do you mean 'we'? Who are you taking with you?" Nudge asked me. But she was trying to look calm, but her panic was easily detected when she spoke. Her voice shook, and her hands were quaking.

Fang looked at me directly in the eyes when he answered Nudge's question, "I'm going with her," he said. Thank god, I thought he wouldn't want to come, and I wouldn't be able to blame him if he didn't. I was practically ask him to assist me on a suicide mission. Well, alright, not a suicide mission, but it'll definitely be dangerous. Those guys have guns, for crying out loud! "We're going to distract the cops, while you guys get away. Don't worry about us, we can take care of ourselves. Just get to the cave." Then all at once the kids started to object.

"No!" Angel screamed, but it was slightly hushed, so the cops wouldn't hear

"You can't go!" Nudge added, sending a worried glance to her brother.

Gazzy was next, "You'll get hurt!" His hand carrying the little wooden soldier shook.

"I'm coming with you!" Iggy said frantically. "I can't let you go!"

After hearing that last one, I immediately put a stop to it, "No! No one is coming! Iggy, you are taking the others to the cave, and that is my final word." My voice carrying a note of authority, "Anyone have any objections? That was a rhetorical question, don't answer it. I said Fang is staying with me and the rest of you are leaving. Now listen, the second Fang and I step outside the door, we will be immediately surrounded, that's your best chance to run. We'll be going out from the front door, you run for the back. Angel, Gazzy, I want the two of you to run, not fly, you might be seen, and we can't have that happen. If they see you they could shoot you out of the sky, and let's face it, that would be bad." I looked at them, and they nodded, somewhat reluctantly. They still didn't want to leave us. Well too bad, they didn't have a choice. Like Fang said long ago, I'm in charge, I'm the leader. "Alright you guys, all of you get to the back door, time to go."

I thought the finality in my voice would make them listen, but they all just started up again. Iggy first this time, "Max, no! You aren't going to leave us!"

Nudge was second, "Please, Max! Don't you trust us? We can help you!" She sounded desperate.

"This isn't fair, you can't go without us." Gazzy screamed.

"Yeah, please! Fang, tell her! Tell her to let us come!" Angel pleaded, throwing in the Bambi Eyes. But I couldn't let that persuade me. I wasn't doing this because I wanted to, I was doing this because I had to. If I could, I'd even leave Fang here. I wouldn't want him coming with me.

It literally broke my heart to hear them like that, but there wasn't anything I could do. "No." I said, and there, you could tell, I wasn't going to have any more of that they had to say. When I used that tone, no one dared to go against me. It's the same tone my mother used when she was saying something that was final, not up for debate. And when I use that tone, everyone knows that shit's goin' down.

I was about to turn around but Iggy grabbed my hand. For a second I thought he was going to argue, and I got ready to punch him, but instead, he leaned down and whispered something in my ear. "Be careful, I can't lose you too."

"When am I not careful? Don't answer that. But I promise that I'll try my best to came back to you."

He shook his head, "No, not try. You have to come back." There was a hint of desperation in his voice.

"I can't promise that, buddy. But I can promise that I will try." I said, I got on my toes and kissed my brother's cheek. It's been years since I've done that, it had felt kind of nice. Except before, I would lean down to kiss the top of his head. When did he get so much taller than me?! Just a couple years ago he was a tiny twig, "Bye."

"See you later." He replied with a sheepish smile. He was trying to tell me he wanted me to come back.

"Yeah, see you later." I said, grinning. And with that, I tore my hand out of his. Iggy tried to keep a hold of my hand, but I ripped it away from him. Anever with that, I finally opened the door and stepped out, Fang right behind me, having my back. Like he always did. Like he always would. I closed my eyes for just a second and opened them again. Show time.

 **So, how was this chapter, it ends with a little cliff, but I'll try and update as soon as possible. Review!**

 **Fly on**


	12. Chapter 11

p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongOkay, I'm actually updating pretty fast, considering I have finals. I've finished my first three exams, and only know my mark for two of them. I must say, I did pretty good. Anyways, I wrote a little one shot called "Little Max Riding Hood" and I'd love it if you could go check that out. It's sort of like a cross between Maximum Ride and Little Red Riding Hood, but with its own twists and turns. Also, I'll probably updating the next chapter in not too long, I already have it written out, I just need to edit it a bit. Well, okay, a lot. And finally, I just wanted to say, I kind of edited some of my previous chapters, but it's okay if you don't go back and read them, it's really nothing important, just some stuff I wasn't really satisfied with./strong/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Chapter Eleven/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Max's P.O.V./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I stepped out of the house expecting to be ambushed at any moment, but the funny thing was, I kept walking for a while, but nobody saw me, so I decided that I'd walk as far away as I could, so that they'd follow me. I'm not even kidding, these guys were stupid and blind. But my plan didn't work out that well. After a few more steps, I heard someone shout, "THERE!" And I felt a bullet whiz past my ear. Oh thank God humans have bad aim. Along with bad everything else. You know, face, sense so fashion, singing voice, harmonica playing skills... Unlike us, Angel has a pretty face, Nudge has quite the fashion sense, I can sing pretty well, and Fang plays a mean harmonica. Yup, we're just full of surprises, aren't we?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Right when the bullet went past me, Fang shouted, "Hey! Watch it! You almost killed us!" /p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I leaned back a bit, and whispered, "I think that's kind of the point, but I might be wrong." He smirked, but then I heard another bullet shoot and suddenly felt a hard impact behind me, and I fell to the ground when Fang's body slammed into mine, tackling me, and saving my life. He took me down to the ground before the bullet killed me. Oh bless you child. Then I shouted loud enough for them to hear me, "Can you stop shooting for a minute, we'll come quietly. We aren't stupid, we know that there's no use fighting, you'll get us in the end." The shooting stopped. Wow, gullible humans. Another thing I can add to the list. I slowly got to my feet./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The second I was standing straight, someone shouted, "Put your hands in the air!" I'm pretty sure you can guess who said that. For a second I was tempted to say, "Like you just don't care," but I resisted the urge. Instead, Fang and I did exactly that. We put our hands in the air. One of the cops came over to put handcuffs on us. Whoa, hold up! Who said that that was okay? I don't recall giving you permission to handcuff me! You can't take me to jail! I demand to speak with a judge! Just wait until my lawyer gets here. Yeah right. Anyways, back to the handcuff thing. Let's just say that's taking it a little far, don't you think? Yeah, we thought so too, so we weren't really going to let that happen./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Fang quickly lunged forward, faster than my eyes could track, and kicked the man in the stomach. While I reached forward and grabbed his arm, chopping down on it. I could've sworn I heard a bone break, and when I looked, I was horrified by what I saw. Well, not really horrified, more like fascinated. Part of his bone was jutting out of his arm. Gross. His arm was gushing with blood, and his skin was torn apart, looking like it had been mauled by some rabid wolf. Seriously? I hadn't even don't it that hard. I've practiced fighting with Fang, and had done much worse but he'd just have the breathe knocked out of him. Humans were like eggs, so fragile. During my oh-so-interesting discovery, it took about five seconds for us to be surrounded. Gosh, didn't the humans know we had tricks up our own sleeves. And unlike them, we didn't need guns to make us feel brave. We just need each other. We fight better together than we do apart. We spent a lot of time training./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I looked at Fang and he smirked at me, and within the next second I saw him back into a tree, blending into it's shadow, and then melting into a shadow of his own. But if you looked closely at the ground, you could see a shadow that didn't actually belong to any visible human, and you could see a black, sharp knife in its hand. I was so jealous, Fang always had the coolest powers. I was the first to get my powers, and I had rubbed it into everyone's face. I guess he was just returning the favour. Whenever we played tag or something, I'd just make myself a force field and sit behind it, but when Fang got his power, he literally turned into a shadow for the entire game and would come out when we were done. At least until I made using our powers against the rules./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Anyways, I stood there for only a second, and I felt a hard something or other crash into me and knocking me to the ground. I would have thought it was Fang again, if I didn't know that he was a shadow right now. Some police officer thought he could tackle me Fang Sy did earlier. Hah! Um, how about no? I looked the man in the eye and laughed. And it wasn't that laugh you give when you hear a funny joke. It was the type of laugh you give when you're telling someone that they're screwed. This the type that Fang uses. He never laughs, but when he's fighting, he gives that laugh when he knows that he's going to win. It's scary. And now, here I was, doing the exact same thing. I swear, the look on his face? Priceless. He was so confused, he probably thought I was crazy, I was being tackled to the ground, yet I was laughing. Well, maybe I was insane. But I didn't suffer from insanity, I enjoyed every second of it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Then, I pulled off one of my own moves. Yeah, Fang isn't the only one with cool powers! I'm really cool too! See, I made a spoon hat! Just kidding, that was Gazzy. Now, back to the battle, well, I'd hardly call it battle, more like a pre-school game. I concentrated for a moment. I felt the familiar feeling of warmth wrap around me, like i was being encased in flames. Then I felt that little pull, dragging me on. Like I was in a dark tunnel, no light, completely blinded, and then seeing a tiny flicker at the end of the tunnel, like a little candle, trying to show me the way. I could feel myself making my way towards the light. Grasping for it. Then the sudden rush of cold, like I was stuck outside in a blizzard, with no coat. Nothing to protect me from the chill, but my thin shirt and pants. Other than that, my skin was completely exposed to the ice crystals. But see, the strange thing is, this isn't just what it feels like, when I go through something, I'm actually seeing all of that happening in the back of my mind. Myself being trapped in flames, being stranded in a tunnel with just a little candle to light my way, being stuck in a cold blizzard. I'd see it all happen, and I'd feel it too./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"When I opened my eyes again, I was on top of the guy who had tackled me earlier, I had completely passed through him, and he was shaking his head like a dog shaking off water. Then I got up, lifted my foot off the ground and brought it down on his spine with all the strength I possessed. I felt his bone shatter underneath my foot, but I couldn't care less, at the moment, the only thing on my mind was getting back to Iggy. I couldn't leave him. None of these guys could keep me from protecting my brother. This guy got lucky. I could have just as easily ripped his spine out of his back and beaten him with it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"After completely destroying the guy's spine, I ran towards some trees but right then, I heard the oh-so-familiar sound of a bullet, and suddenly I felt a horrible sting on my cheek. They had actually managed to hit me! Stupid guns! Humans don't fight fair. Okay, neither do we, but still! Disgusting, filthy, stupid, idiotic, imbecilic, inane, insane, dirty cheaters! Yup, I'm angry, in case you didn't notice. Yeah, it's not that easy to notice when I'm angry. I turned around and crashed into the man nearest to me, I hit him with such an impact that he immediately fell to the ground, and didn't get up again. Next, I saw another man come towards me, so I used the minute it took for him to reach me to aim, when he finally reached me, which seemed like it took two years, I landed a very well-placed roundhouse kick straight to his chest and felt a few of his ribs crack. He flew a couple feet back, slammed into a tree and went down like a bad of bricks./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"THEN I managed to make my way towards the trees and again I felt another bullet whiz past me, this time clipping my leg! Oh. My. God. They had gotten me on the leg, I couldn't fight with one of my legs out of commission. How the hell was I even supposed to walk. So I put up a barrier right there to keep them away from me, but the bad part? I made a pretty big barrier, so it wouldn't last long, it would be gone in about four minutes if I'm lucky. Which I never am. That's why I was trying to get to the trees, it would provide a force field of its own, giving me less to take care of. Then I started looking around frantically to see if I could find Fang anywhere, but the thing was, it was pretty dark out, so he was blending in with the darkness around us./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"But then, suddenly, I knew exactly where he was. No, it's not a new power where I can suddenly smell him or something. Nope, not that, instead, one of the men fell to the ground clutching his ankle, when I looked closer I saw blood seeping through his fingers. Fang must have been using that small knife he made to hurt them so that they wouldn't be able to walk. Brilliant! That's my best friend! Then as Fang took them down one by one, I used that moment to get the bullet out of my leg. Stupid, I know, but when someone shoots you, your immediate response isn't, "Hey, thanks for the bullet. I think I'll keep it in for a while." You want to get the little crap out of you. Thank God it hadn't gotten in too deep or else there would be no way to get it out. Right now it was just on the surface, not even all of it was stuck in my leg, a part of it was sticking out, so I held it between my index finger and my thumb and yanked it out as hard as I could, ignoring the obvious pain and the massive amount of blood flowing from my leg./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I gasped as it broke free of my leg, exposing the raw meat to the fresh air. The funny thing about all of this was, they had no clue what was going on with Fang, they didn't know that he could turn into a shadow, so they probably thought that he was invisible. I did feel a little guilty though, not about the boys in blue, but about Fang. He was out there, fighting for his life, and here I was, doing nothing. What I didn't really seem to notice was how tired I was getting. I didn't notice it until it happened. I felt my walls go down, but before I could do anything, I saw a man run up to me, and then I blacked out, blood dripping from the gash on my cheek and my pants soaked from the wound on my leg. Well shit. I'm screwed./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Fang! Help!/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongSo, how was this one? I liked the ending. I did my best on it, but seriously, my mind is kind of fried right now from having to memorize stupid formulas for math and science that I'll never need. Anyways, Review!/strong/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongFly on/strong/p 


	13. Chapter 12

**See, told you I'd get it done today.**

Chapter Twelve

Fang's P.O.V.

He was about to get another guy on the ankle, when he saw Max's forcefield come down. He had expected her to just kneel over with her hands on her knees, breathing hard, but that wasn't what happened at all. Instead, she instantly passed out and fell to the ground. He had only just remembered, the bigger the wall, the shorter time it lasts. How could he have been so stupid? But the passing out was new. That had never happened before. The only other time she had passed out was when Gazzy had decided he wanted a pet and brought a tarantula home. He had showed it to her, expecting her to be prows of him, but she had just fallen to the ground. He had been in his room at the time, and when he heard the "thump!" he had come running downstairs. When he saw her on the ground he had naturally assumed Gazzy had done something so he turned to Gazzy and actually started screaming at him. Let's just say that the kids had been a little bit more than surprised by his outburst. Ever since then Iggy had started keeping an annoyingly close watch on his, as though he would try and kill Max. But that had only made his want to kill Iggy.

Anyways, when he saw Max fall his heart started pounding loudly in his chest, then he suddenly saw a man run up to her. Ugh, what the hell was it going to take to get these morons to realize that Bloods are just much more awesome than normal humans? It's not that easy to kill a Blood! Fang quickly came out of the shadows, he seemed to be getting a little tired, but simply ignored the feeling, he walked over and stood behind the man and quietly whispered, "Boo. "

The man suddenly jerked up as though he had been electrocuted. What was up with these people? The smallest things scare them. Angel was tougher than these losers but that wasn't really saying much, considering how creepy Angel could be when she wanted to be.

"Guess what?" Fang whispered to the guy, in a quiet, yet cold and deadly voice, "You never stood a chance against us." Then he pulled his fist back and, with all of his force, smashed it into the man's ugly face and felt his nose break under the impact. 'Well,' Fang thought, 'that's that.' Fang then looked around at all of these so-called police officers lying unconscious on the ground and groaned in disgust. Geez, how was it legal to call them police officers? They probably couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag, much less catch criminals. But then suddenly he remembered that his best friend was also one of those people lying on the ground unconscious. Wow, just wow. He was honestly the crappies the friend in the history of... ever. He quickly ran up to her and saw that she had this huge gash across her cheek. One of the stupid bullets shot her! Why didn't she say anything? She. Is. So. Stubborn. Well, okay, she wouldn't have been able to say something, but she could have screamed or something, he would have heard her.

Fang quickly tore off a sleeve from his black shirt and pressed it up against her face to try and stop the bleeding, but it wasn't really doing much. Her blood leaked through the clothes and started to stain his fingers a dark crimson colour. After pressing the cloth to her face for about another fifteen minutes, he noticed that her blood flow was slowing down at bit, then after about another fifteen minutes, it completely stopped. Weird. Maybe she had some super healing powers or something. He slowly lowered the cloth from her face, the strange thing was, the gash was still there, it hadn't stabbed over or anything, but blood wasn't dripping from it. If she hadn't been breathing, he would have thought that she had bled to death. He then looked at her arms to see if she had gotten hurt, Fang was almost satisfied until he saw a crimson puddle underneath her leg. Blood. Not only did they get her cheek, they also got her leg! Stupid humans! 'Why must you make everything so difficult?!' Fang thought. 'How on earth could I not have noticed that?!'

He looked over at her leg and saw a small tear a bit below her knee. Fang pulled at it a bit to get the tear a little bigger. When it was big enough for him to see the wound, he looked over and almost freaked out. There was just a huge hole in her leg and her blood was spilling everywhere. A lot of her blood had probably permanently stained the grass. Fang looked closer and noticed that there was actually no bullet there. At first he didn't understand what had happened, but then it finally clicked in his mind—she actually pulled the damn bullet out on her own. That must have been so painful! Why on earth would she do something so pathetic? Oh, whatever! After all, if someone were to shoot you, you probably wouldn't want to leave it in. You'd want to get that thing out of you. And super flippin' fast, man!

He then quickly tore off his other sleeve, leaving his arms bare, not that he cared, and pressed it up against the bleeding mess that was her leg, and in the next thirty minutes, the same thing happened. The bleeding stopped, but the cut was still there, and there wasn't even any scab or anything over it. Slowly her breathing started to go back to normal, but Fang still wasn't satisfied. He wouldn't be satisfied until he knew Max was safe. 'Ha!' He thought to himself, 'Max will never be safe. None of is ever will. If your gonna be satisfied when Max's safe, you'll never be satisfied.' The kids were probably wondering where they were. They had probably expected them to catch up with them in ten to fifteen minutes, but now it had been over an hour. At the least. The kids were most likely sticking pins in Fang and Max dolls, and by tomorrow they would be cursing their names from dusk till dawn. (A/N: Anyone see what I did there?)

By then, he was too tired of waiting, but couldn't do anything about that. And knowing that he couldn't do anything to help Max made him feel more powerless than he had ever felt. And that included the first little bit of his life. Fang could have hoisted her over his shoulders, but if she found out he had done that, she would murder him. She hated it when she seemed weak, if she found out that he had taken her there, and she didn't do anything, she would be angry. And no one ever wanted to see her angry, you would literally see your life flash before your eyes. That's something you only want to go through once. To heck with that! You probably wouldn't even want to go through it even once! So he sat down beside her, and waited for her to wake up. And, for a moment, he had debated whether or not he should sing "Ninety-Nine Bottles Of Beer On The Wall".

 **So, how was this chapter?**

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	14. Chapter 13

**Just finished an exam, honestly, it was so easy, but I came home and realized some stupid mistakes I made. But whatever, my average for that class is pretty high, so I'll do fine. Anyways, this chapter is a little short, but I'll try to post another one today.**

Chapter Thirteen

 **Fang's P.O.V.**

So, for the longest time Fang sat there and waited for Max to wake up. Well, okay, it wasn't that long, it was more like ten minutes, but for him, that was ten minutes too long for his best friend to be knocked out. For a while he let his mind wander, which was something he didn't usually do, for fear of where his mind might wander to. And again, as it usually did when he was trying to ignore, it showed up again. The thing that kept him up at night, even now. Not that anyone knew. He was always trying to forget it. But trying to forget was the thing that made him remember it. Countless nights when he was just a child, where all he heard was screaming. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to make the images go away.

But they didn't go away, they just kept coming. No matter how hard he tried, he would never forget. The first years of a persons life are the building blocks of who they will grow up to be. But what of their first years were nothing but a disaster. He clenched his fists and sat there for a moment. He didn't notice it, but after a moment it started to sting more. He didn't need to look to see that his nails had cut into his palms. But he couldn't care less. But he opened his eyes nonetheless. When he did, he was shocked to see a pair of brown eyes staring at him. "Max!" He shouted. Fang leaned down and almost pulled her in for hug, but stopped himself. A guy couldn't just ruin his reputation like that.

"Fang!" She shouted back in a mocking tone, at least she tried to shout back, but it was more like a whisper. Then she did something that would have slightly annoyed him slightly before, but now, Fang was just glad she was back to normal, she stuck her tongue out at him. Childish, true, but he would never want to be the one to tell her that, anyone could tell her if they wanted, though. Go ahead, it was nice knowing you. So, do you want red flowers on your grave, or black?

"You're awake!" He exclaimed. He had to actually work hard to push down the relief in his voice.

"No, really?" She replied sarcastically, "I thought I was dead." Then she playfully smacked his arm and tried to laugh, but instead she coughed and covered her mouth with her hand. When she moved her hand away from her face it was covered in dark red.

"You're coughing blood!" Now he was no longer trying to keep out the relief, but was trying to keep out the fear.

"I'm fine, lets just go. The kids are probably tearing their hair out from anxiety."

"Since when do you use fancy words like 'anxiety'?"

"Since my best friend had lost faith in me and thought I had died." She said it as a joke, but the thing was, her words practically stabbed him in the chest, piercing his heart. Fang hadn't lost faith in her. He had helped her with her wounds, he had waited for her to wake up. He was worried that she might not get up, but he didn't dwell on that too much. Her not waking up wasn't an option. He hadn't lost faith in her, he just hadn't.

"Actually, I waited for you to wake up. If I lost faith in you I would have left you for dead."

"You know I was joking right?" Fang nodded at her and she smiled, but it was more of a grimace. "Alright then, let's go find the others." He nodded at her again and she gave him a lopsided smile. She looked pretty funny, but he didn't dare laugh.

Fang just stood up and held out his hand to her but she simply brushed it aside and tried to stand on her own, but once she got to her feet she cried out and fell back to the ground. He held out his hand his again, the only difference was, this time, she took it. When she stood up, he slung her arm across his shoulder and with that they turned around and made their way to the cave where the others were waiting for them. Fang didn't dare look back. He didn't want to see the place where he nearly lost the one person he ever cared for.

 **People, review!**

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	15. Chapter 14

**I already had this chapter written out which is why it didn't take too long to update. Anyways:**

Chapter Fourteen

Iggy's P.O.V.

They had gotten to the cave about fifteen minutes after Max and Fang had left the house. Honestly, he didn't trust Fang with his sister. He acts as though he cares about her, but Iggy didn't really think he did. Fang had always said stuff like, "Oh, she's my best friend." Or "Oh, I do care about her." But no, that guy only cares about himself. He's nothing but selfish. Max doesn't think so, but Iggy did. She really thought that Fang meant well, but then why was he so secretive? Why didn't he tell them why they had met him when he was five, why not earlier? He was keeping secrets from them, Max thought that he would tell them when he was ready, Iggy Arrow wasn't so sure. His sister was always determined to make Fang seem good, but that was only because they were friends. There really is no other real reason. How could Max be so blind?

For a while Iggy let his thoughts wander, but then he felt something tug on his sleeve. He turned his head and looked down at his side, only to see Nudge standing there looking a little scared. Iggy didn't trust Fang, but he trusted Nudge. They may be siblings, but they were complete opposites. Fang was quiet, contained and kept secrets. Nudge was loud, talkative, and told Max everything. Iggy never really understood how they were siblings. Perhaps Fang was adopted, that would sure make a lot of sense.

"What's up, Nudge? You okay?"

"It's been over an hour but Max and Fang still aren't back yet. I'm scared." What?! Oh, God! He hadn't been keeping track of time. Had it really been that long! He knew they couldn't trust Fang. He probably hurt Max, making it impossible for her to get back! Fang had never liked them! He probably-, "Iggy? Are you okay? You look angry."

"I'm fine. I'm just worried about Max."

"What about Fang?"

"..." Um. Oh no, she probably thought he I don't care about her brother.

"Don't worry, Iggy. As long as Fang is okay, so is Max. Fang wouldn't let Max get hurt. He wouldn't. Max is his best friend. He would make sure nobody could hurt her." Iggy simply nodded at her, but honestly, he didn't believe her. How could he? He just didn't trust that guy. No one is just always silent for no reason. Something happened to him. Something he didn't want them to know about. Something that he was going to find out.

"Max!" He heard Angel and Nudge scream from the other side of the cave. He looked over and almost jumped out of his skin. She had this huge, deep cut across her cheek, her pants looked such a dark red that he had no idea what colour they used to be, her brown hair was completely drenched in blood, and there was even some of the crimson liquid dripping slightly from the corner of her mouth. And the weirdest part was that she had an arm draped across Fang's shoulders. Okay, so maybe Fang didn't hurt her, but he still didn't trust him. Why didn't Fang stop his sister from getting hurt? Why wasn't he hurt in the slightest? Whatever, he would worry about that later, but for now...

"Max!" Iggy shouted, sounding like a child on his birthday, but he didn't care. He ran up to his sister and tackled her to the ground, wrapping her up in a fierce hug. But the thing is, the second she hit the ground she screamed so loud that he felt the hairs on his neck rise. Oh, right. He forgot that she probably got hurt on her leg, which was probably why she needed Fang' help stand. Oh, and her blood-stained pants were also a small hint. Not much, but Iggy was smarter than he looked. Oops. "Sorry, sorry! I didn't realize!" He said, getting her to her feet.

"No, it's fine, I'm glad to see you too. Just don't tackle me to the ground. I've had enough tackling for one day," She said that last part and gave a look to Fang. What was that about? Did Fang tackle her and try to hurt her?

He gave her a sort of funny look, then turned impassive again and said, "Hey, I saved your life. They almost shot at you. Is that not good enough?"

"True, true." Oh, Fang had saved his sister! He don't really know what to think about that.

Iggy turned to him and saw that Nudge and Angel were hugging him tightly and he was just standing there, still as a statue, the way he always was when someone hugged him. He clearly wasn't the most cuddly person, but then again, guys never are. However, Iggy still loved his sister, he had just run up to her and hugged her, even though she was completely drenched in blood, was it too much for him to hug his sister?

Iggy slowly stepped away from his sister and she was immediately wrapped in a big hug by Gazzy. Gazzy was always close to her, she had acted like a mother to them when they never had one. Sometimes Iggy had even gotten a little jealous because Max would spend more time with Gazzy than with him. After Gazzy had let go of her, Angel and Nudge got her, and Fang was standing at the side, watching.

Then, Iggy suddenly did something that surprised even himself. He walked up to Fang and stood in front of him for a moment. He had never realized this before, but Fang was only two inches taller than him, and that's saying a lot, since Fang's pretty tall. That meant that he was tall too!

Iggy, he reached out and hugged Fang as though he were his older brother. He still didn't trust him, but Fang saved his sister. That's gotta be worth something. Fang was so surprised that he sorta patted Iggy in the back, then he quietly whispered in Iggy's ear, so low, even he wasn't even sure he heard correctly. But he did, "I'd never do anything to hurt Max. She's my best friend, I know you don't trust me, but please, believe me. I'd never hurt Max. I really, truly care. About all of you" Then he stepped back with a slight smirk on his face, but Iggy was too shocked by what he had said to him.

What was that about? He said that he'd never do anything to hurt Max, he said he cared about all of them. A part of Iggy wanted to believe him, but the other part of him knew better. Fang had always been like a big brother to him, but then again, looks can kill you if you let them, Max had taught him that much, she practically drilled it into his head. ' _Looks can be deceiving,'_ she'd always say _, "always keep your eyes open where ever you go. You never know when someone might smile to your face, but then plunge a knife into your back and pierce your heart. It doesn't matter who the person is. Expect pain, expect to get hurt. If you're surprised by the pain, you just lost. You're already dead. Expect pain. From everyone.'_ Fang looked like he cared about Max, but did he really? Did he really care about any of them?

 **Did you like it? Yes? No? Oh, and do you think I'm making Iggy a bit too. . . over? Review!**

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	16. Chapter 15

**I am being** ** _way_** **too nice. It's just that I have quite a few chapters already written out, so I think "** ** _why not post them?"_** **I should probably leave you in suspense, but I whatever. Seriously, I'm being so kind a to update, review, people!**

Chapter Fifteen

Max's P.O.V.

I must say, when Iggy went over and hugged Fang, I almost cried. It was so sweet. Sure Fang didn't really hug back, but this is Fang we're talking about, he doesn't hug. Lately Iggy had been getting a little distant from Fang, as I'm sure you've noticed. He'd keep shooting him these sort of looks when he thought no one was looking, but I saw them. I always see them. Let's just say that they show up quite often. I know this seems crazy, but I feel like Iggy and Fang had a fight. You remember that day when I walked downstairs and their heads were bent together and they were arguing in low voices? I think that had something to do with this. Iggy probably thought that Fang did something wrong, but that's just crazy. Fang's my best friend, I trust him. And I'm sure he trusts me too. And-

Wait! What's going on? I had turned back to look at them and it looked as though Fang whispered something in Iggy's ear, and, from the looks of it, his words really shocked Iggy. Oh God, if they start arguing again I swear, I'll have to do something serious to keep the two of them apart. Maybe I could lock them up in cages, or put them both on a leash. Ha, how appropriate. See, 'cause we're animals, and-you know what? Forget it. Oh, wait, never mind, looks like they're fine, Fang had just pulled away form Iggy with a slight smirk on his face. Iggy, on the other hand, looked shocked. I shook my head. Boys.

The girls, on the other hand, looked proud. Jeez, they're so little, yet they're acting like they're the same age as me. I shook my head again and sighed. Girls.

Oh wait, so what does that make me? Sane? Nah, I'm just kidding

Then, loud enough for everyone to hear, I said, "Everyone, come here and sit down. I'm going to tell you what took us so long."

"Well, from the looks of it, your bullet wounds seem to be the main reason you've been gone for so long, but I might be wrong. Please, enlighten me." said Gazzy. Hah, that kid is hilarious sometimes. Honestly, I love him very much. Don't tell the others this, but from the boys, he is definitely my favourite. He's just so sweet, and when he looks at you with his gorgeous eyes, all kind and trusting. It just makes you want to melt.

I made them all sit in a circle around me, Fang was at my right, and Iggy was sitting at my left, holding my hand. I slightly squeezed his hand and Iggy turned his head and gave me a reassuring smile. Keeping that smile in mind, I began telling them about what happened. Again, Fang would interfere every now and then, talking about how he so heroically saved my life. When he said that he saved my life, Angel and Gazzy both gasped, and Nudges slapped her hand over her own mouth dramatically. I actually thought they were going to start praising him about what a hero was, but then Angel whispered, "Are you okay, Max? Did they hurt you too bad?"

"No, buddy, the bullet just grazed me, I'm fine," I looked over at Fang and he had that look of exaggerated patience, "Well, okay. Maybe not that fine, the bullet that hit my cheek only clipped me. The one that hit my leg, that one got stuck in, so I kind of, maybe, sort of, pulled it out."

Angel looked horrified, "You what?! It could get infixed, um, infested, er, in-"

"Infected?" Gazzy provided.

She nodded her head, "Yeah, that. It could get hurt really badly."

Then Nudge spoke up, "Your right, she could have gotten hurt very bad. In fact, I pretty sure she did get hurt very bad, and she needs something to wrap around her wound. Did anyone bring something I could use?"

"Iggy to the rescue. I brought some Band-Aids, gauze, torn cloths and antiseptic. I had a feeling we might need it. Knowing you two, I thought one of you would show up severely wounded. And I'd be right. Looks like my guesses are just as good as my aim. Awesome." Wow, that kid's ego is so huge, I wonder how it fit through the door of our house. Wait no, no thinking about our house.

"Can you go get it?" Nudge asked asked him with exaggerated patience. Iggy nodded and turned around to go get the blue bag he had brought with him. He handed it over to Fang and Fang reached in and pulled out the antiseptic. He put some on a piece of cloth and rubbed it in the wound on my cheek, honestly, it stung. He then took out a Band-Aid and put it over top of my cut. Not exactly how a doctor would do it, but whatever. At this point, I was beyond caring. He then motioned to my leg and I stuck it out. This time he showed no mercy, he dumped the antiseptic on the gaping hole in my leg, and I winced so horribly. He didn't even look up, only mumbled, "Trying to do it fast."

"Whatever. Hurry up, it's killing me. Ugh, how did you manage to not get hurt, like, at all?"

"I'm just that awesome." I simply rolled my eyes at him. Usually I would have whacked him on the head, but at that moment, I was incapable of doing anything he grabbed the gauze out of the bag and slowly, and carefully wrapped it around my leg. "Better?"

I nodded my head at him and slowly tried to stand up, but I fell down almost instantly. I suddenly felt a small pair of hands grab my arms, helping to try to cushion my fall. I looked up and saw Angel leaning over me, her eyes wide with fear.

"Max, maybe you shouldn't try walking just yet. You might get hurt."

Before I could object, Iggy cut in, "That's a brilliant idea, Angel. Alright you guys, it's getting dark, all of you go to sleep."

Fang nodded his head and quietly said, "I'm taking first watch."

"I'll stay up with you." I heard a rushed voice say. I turned and saw Iggy standing there with his arms crossed, as though he was daring someone to object. Nobody did.

"Sure, Iggy. I'll probably need someone to stay up with me to make sure I don't fall asleep. Besides, if we get ambushed, I doubt I'll be able to deal with it on my own." Fang sounded as he always did, impassive, but his eyes held a sort of anger. Like a match just waiting for its chance to catch fire, for its chance to burn the whole world down to the ground.

"Actually, I think you would be able to handle an ambush quite well. I'm just not sure if anyone should take a watch all by themselves. It would be little difficult. Especially since this is the very first time we're doing something like this." Iggy sounded sincere, but you could hear something hidden in his voice. Something like… caution?

"Sure Iggy, whatever." Is it just me, or did Fang say that last part with a hint of disgust in his voice?

 **So, I went back to Max's POV. I probably shouldn't switch so much, but I really wanna get everyone's feeling in there. Like it? No? Let me know!**

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	17. Chapter 16

**Seriously, I can't believe it took me so long to post. I had the chapter written out, but I was just feeling so lazy. It's really hot here, and when I'm hot I all I want to do is lay down on my bed and play with my cat. Oh, we just got her but I'm not sure about a name, if you have any suggestions, let me know. My** **brother keeps on coming up with stupid names, it's really starting to piss me off. Anyways, sorry about the wait.**

Chapter Sixteen

Fang's P.O.V.

What was up with this kid? Why the hell didn't Iggy trust him? What had Fang ever done to him? For some stupid reason Iggy seemed to be convinced that he was going to hurt Max. What was his deal? He always thought that he knew everything. When would he understand that the world was much bigger than he was?

"Fang?"

That kid always thought that he needed to know everything. Sometimes Fang wished he could just stab him in the eye with a butter knife. Well, not literally, but Iggy just made him so mad sometimes.

"Fang?"

If there are things that he hadn't told Max, then Iggy most definitely didn't need to know.

"Fang."

He would tell Max when he was ready for someone other than himself to know.

"Fang." Oh. Iggy. He forgot he was here.

Fang turned to face at him.

"I called you, like, fifty times, why weren't you answering?"

"Thinking."

"What were you thinking about?"

"Does it matter?" He didn't say anything, "Didn't think so."

The two boy both sat there for a moment in silence, both staring at nothing. Every now and then Fang would notice Iggy turn to glance at him, open his mouth to say something, then turn around again as though nothing had happened. What was wrong with this kid? Why couldn't he be more like Max?

Fang understood that the fact that he never spoke seemed suspicious, but Iggy had known him for nine years, why couldn't he just trust him? Fang already had to bear the heavy burden of his past on his own shoulders, he didn't want anyone else to. Sure, he didn't really remember it all that very well, he just remembered the worst parts. He didn't know who had done it to him, but he did know why.

He was a Blood, and they raise a lot of questions. And some people, even he didn't know who, would do anything to get their answers. If Fang knew who did that to him, he would go back and find them, but the thing was, he didn't know who they were or where they had kept him, it looked like a jail but he couldn't be sure. Or he would definitely make sure that the hospital became their permanent home. The only thing that he could possibly do, was make sure he never went back there. Not him, not Max, not any of them. He would never let that happen. But Fang definitely thought that he might have to tell Max a little something. She trusted him, but he needed to tell her what had happened to him for the first five years of his life.

Then finally, Iggy burst, "Why are you so secretive, when your sister is so outgoing?" What? "Why don't you ever talk? Why don't you tell us why we met you when you were five? If not me, then tell Max, I know you trust her. What happened that was so horrible that you don't even want to talk about? I remember when you first arrived you used to have nightmares all night, you would scream and shout and then Max would have to calm you down. You think none of us noticed, but you weren't exactly very subtly about it."

Fang turned and gave him Iggy his signature glare. The type of glare that makes you so glad that looks couldn't kill.

"What?!"

"There are some things that you can't know. You think that you need to know everything, but if I'm not telling Max, then I most definitely am not going to tell you. You don't need to know." Fang said in deadly calm voice.

"But you never talk, I want to know what happened!"

"You don't need to know." He replied simply.

"What are you so afraid of? Why can't you just-" but Fang cut him off by slapping his hand over Iggy's mouth.

Iggy turned to glare at him and started clawing at his hand, but Fang slowly brought a finger to his lips. He gave him a questioning look. Fang was about to pull on one of his ears, but then remembered that he still had his cap on. He reached up, pulled it off and tossed it onto the ground, he shook his head a bit just for the sake of getting his hair untangled. Then Fang pulled on one of his cat ears, signifying that he heard something.

Iggy nodded his head.

"Okay, Iggy, listen to me. Go wake up Max, tell her I heard something and I'm going to go find out what it is. But no matter what happens do not follow me. If you do, you will be leaving the others completely unguarded, opened for ambush."

"I'm not going to let you go by yourself!"

"Listen. I know you don't trust me, but I swear, I would never do anything to hurt any of you. You're my. . . family."

"I'm not saying it because I don't trust you, I'm saying it because I actually don't want you to go by yourself, you might get hurt. Besides, Max would kill me if she found out I didn't follow you."

"Well too bad, I'll find a resurrection spell for you. I'm going outside to look around and I want you to go wake up Max and tell her that I heard something and went to go check it out. But you must not let her come after me. Okay?" He nodded. Good.

"See you later." He said, Fang nodded at him and headed into the woods. The second he stepped in, he was immediately swallowed up by the darkness and shadows.

 **So, how was it? Review!**

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	18. Chapter 17

**Oh my god! I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted, but what can I say, I've been kind of busy. You know, what with being on vacation and whatnot. Be glad I'm posting while being on vacation. This chapter is short, so I'll be posting another one today- hopefully. Probably. Maybe? Let's see.**

Chapter Seventeen

Max's P.O.V.

"Max. Psst, get up. I need to tell you something" Iggy whispered. I probably should have listened to what he had to say, but at the moment, I couldn't care less, I was tired. I'm not kidding, I was having the most amazing dream—I had gotten my mother back. Actually, she had never left in the first place.

"Go away." I muttered, not at all pleased by his presence.

"No, this is important. Get up."

"No."

"I'm serious, it's Fang. He did something stupid, but he told me not to stop him." Okay, that made me get up. I usually don't care if any of these guys do anything stupid, but with Fang, his stupid is just next level.

"What did he do?" I asked, quickly sitting up. But the moment I sat up straight, my head crashed right into something and a searing pain practically exploded in my head and I cried out. I opened my eyes and saw Iggy sitting in front of me rubbing his nose. Oops.

"Ow! What was that for?" He all but screamed.

"Forget about that. What did Fang do?"

"We were just talking and then he said that he heard something. He told me to wake you up while he went to go see what it was."

"And you just let him go. What kind of an idiot are you? That's like, next-level stupid. I thought only Fang reached that level of stupid, but I guess I was wrong."

"Of course I tried to stop him, he just didn't listen. You know how he is, when he wants to do something, he doesn't give two craps about what anyone says."

"I'm going to go find him. You stay here."

"No, he said not to follow him." Oh, and since when did Iggy start listening to what Fang ever said. But for that matter—

"Since when do I listen to anyone? Besides, I'm in charge here, it's his job to listen to me, not the other way around."

"But Max, you can't just-"

"Yes I can, and I will. And nobody is going to stop me. Not you, not Fang, no one. I'll see you later."

"No!" He shouted, but I was already gone. I stepped outside of the cave, and looked around. On the ground, I saw Fang's cap that he was wearing when we went outside to go head off the cops. It's so crazy to think that only happened a few hours ago. Yesterday we were living in our warm house, and now we were some homeless teenagers and kids on the run. How times have changed for us. I bet we'll be living in a swamp by the end of the week. Whatever.

I looked around a bit to see if I could find anything telling me which way he went, but he didn't leave any tracks. That guy could be pretty sneaky when he wanted to. Oh well, I guess I'll have to depend on my doggy ears to get me through this. Let's see how quiet Fang can get.

* * *

For about a whole hour I had walked aimlessly. Apparently, Fang can be very quiet, screw him. So, I kept looking for another ten, fifteen minutes, but then, I had suddenly had enough, "Fang! Where are you? Fang!"

I was silent for a few moments, waiting for a reply. No answer. I waited for about another ten minutes, but he didn't show up, "Fang?" Still no answer. Okay, I'll admit. Now I was scared, it's not like Fang to ignore me. No matter what I need, he always comes to help. What if something happened to him? Iggy told him not to go. Why couldn't he listen?Why was he so stupid? Why couldn't he just sit still? What is the matter with him? What if-

Someone grabbed me from behind and clapped a hand over my mouth.

 **Like I said, short, but I'll post another one, so no worries.**

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	19. Chapter 18

**See, what did I say, another chapter up. I actually already had it written, I even have the one after this written. I think I might post that one too. They may be a little short, but that doesn't make them any less important. Sort of.**

Chapter Eighteen

Fang's P.O.V.

Fang had only been walking through the woods for about half an hour then suddenly, he heard the voices again. He had been hearing them on and off ever since he had left the cave. Right now, it sounded like someone was shouting. He walked a little closer and saw two men, one of which he recognized from earlier. It was the cop that went after Max once she had collapsed, the cop whose nose he had broken. Man, that had felt good. The pressure of the man's nose breaking, skin splitting under his fist. Anyways, right now the man's nose looked all weird and crooked, but he didn't seem to care about that too much. He was too busy cowering under the rage of the other man. He also looked like a police officer, but he seemed to be a higher rank. He was the one shouting.

"How is it possible that two Bloods, one of which was a girl, managed to get away. We heard about the Bloods, and I thought there would be about five of them, so I sent fifteen of you, and this is how you come out! Thank God there wasn't five of them, or else you would have all died!" Truer words had never been spoken. Fang felt a little bit of pride for his friends.

"But sir, the boy managed to turn invisible and the girl did something that didn't allow us hurt her, but we still managed to. We shot the girl across her cheek and her leg. Besides, that's not important, I saw-"

"What do you mean that's not important?"

"I mean that I saw a few other kids leave the house once those two came out." What? He managed to see the kids. Oh no. "They were heading further into the woods, but I left them, they were younger, we went for the older kids."

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?"

"I was going to but-"

"Fang!" Huh? What the hell was going on.

"Did you hear that?" Oh, God. The cops heard it too.

"Where are you?" Wait, that sounded like Max. No. He had told Iggy to not let her come after him. Why could she not just do as she was told? She was so stubborn. What was her problem. It was as though she actually had a death wish.

"Fang!" She sounded a little angry, but that was the least of his concerns. He ran in the direction of her voice, he was running for about ten minutes, and he finally saw her. Thank god, she was okay!

She started to look a little scared, she didn't know where he was, "Fang?" She whispered his name ever so quietly. As though afraid that she wouldn't find him. He walked behind her, as silent as a shadow, grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back against him, and he suddenly clapped his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed in her ear, but even to his own ears, his voice sounded harsh. She was shaking a little and Fang suddenly realized that she was worried, she thought he had gotten hurt. Then, something weird happened. He felt something wet on his hand, a drop. Then another, and another. They started to come faster, but he didn't look. He didn't want to. He didn't want to see. But he couldn't just ignore her. He bent forward a little and saw that she was crying. Whoa. Now he felt awful. He had made her cry, she never cried. And the only other time she'd ever cried was when her mother died. But deep down, he felt a little joyous, knowing how much she cared about him. Not many people cared about him. His childhood was the nothing but loneliness, resentment, and misery. "Listen, Max," he whispered in her ear quietly, "I'm sorry. But you were screaming and there's cops around here. Come on, we should get back to the others, I'll tell you what I heard on the way."

"Whatever. I don't care. Leave me alone." She tried to snarl at him, but it didn't really work since she was crying.

"I'm sorry, Max. I didn't mean to say it like that, it's just that they heard you. Now come on, let's get back to the others."

"Whatever." He grabbed her arm and pulled a little until she started walking. Then they made their way back towards the cave where the kids were staying.

"You're an idiot. You know that don't you?" Okay, so Max thought he was an idiot. Fair enough. But still—

"And why would I be an idiot?" He asked her.

"Because I was worried and you didn't even care." Ouch

"Max?"

"What?"

"There's something you need to know."

"What is it? Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" She said, fear laced into her voice. The small argument from earlier forgotten.

"No, nothing like that."

"Then what?"

Fang couldn't believe he was doing this, but it needed to be done. He wouldn't feel better until he told her, "Have you ever wondered why I showed up at your doorstep when I was five?"

 **Fly on**


	20. Chapter 19

**Well, you guys, all of you that were wondering about Fang's secret, the long wait has come to an end.**

Chapter Nineteen

Fang's POV

"Have you ever wondered why I showed up at your doorstep when I was five?"

When Fang said that, she sucked in a breath so harshly, she fell into a fit of coughs. He punched her back lightly, until she got her breathing normal again, "Fang, you don't have to tell me. For nine years, you didn't even mention this, when I asked you about it, you would ignore me. And now you're willingly talking about it. You don't have to, it's okay."

"No, it's not okay. It's not. You told me that you were afraid of spiders because they were so big, hairy and creepy, so now I'm going to tell you why I'm afraid of white."

"But I thought you said that you were going to tell me why I met you when you were five?" She sounded confused.

"I am. They're both one story." She nodded. "Okay, so you see, well, I don't know where to start from. Okay, um. Well, it was..."

"Take a deep breath, then start." He did what she told him to, and for a moment he felt a little better. Only for a moment. Then the dread was back, but he ignored it anyways.

"Okay, when I was born, my mother raised me until I was about five months, or so they told me. Don't ask me who, I'm getting to that. So, yeah, some men broke into our house and kidnapped me in the dead of night. My mother went out of her mind. Even though I was a Blood, they told me that she really loved me. They showed me videos they had taken of her while she was playing with a child, with me. The crazy thing was that she looked like me, no, I looked like her. Just by looking at her, you could tell that she was my mother. The only difference was that she was a normal human, and I was a monster." He took a deep breath, not used to speaking so much, but continued anyways. She looked like she wanted to cut in, but he quickly continued speaking, not giving her the chance to say anything.

"For months these, um, people, they tortured me. They had kidnapped many children. All I remember was that there was only one other Blood that they had. His name was 'Flare' or something, I don't really remember. They killed him when I was three." Fang looked over at Max and saw that she was covering her mouth, but she didn't say anything, so he continued. "They wanted to find out how different Bloods really were from humans, I remember this one human boy, he was two, maybe three years older than me, they made him run on a treadmill as fast as he could, for as long as he could. He ran for about an hour, which is actually pretty good, but then he collapsed. They handed him a glass of water and then just ignored him. They called me over, I ran for two and a half hours before collapsing.

"Day after day, they made a normal human that they kidnapped do something, and then they would make me do it, to see how much better I was. They would have used some other Bloods, but I was the only one they had, so every test that they wanted to do, they used me, and some random normal human. There were some times when they would stick a needle in me, take my blood, and mix it in with some drink sort of thing they made. They would give it into some poor child, and the kids, thinking they were getting more water, would drink it all. But the worst part was, every time they did this, the human child would die. There's something about our blood, Max, something that normal humans can't bear to have in them, no matter how old they were. After a while I found out that the kids that they were messing with, they were their own children, and they didn't care. Every month, at least three children would die, but they never cared.

"Soon enough, every child died, everyone, but me. I was the only one still alive, so they kidnapped children. All over the country, there were news reports about missing children, homes with one family member less, but that didn't bother them. They were killing off their own children and didn't care. I don't know why I thought they would care about messing with some random child that they 'somehow' managed to come across." He took a deep breath. There was so tension much in the air, he could have sliced it with a knife. Not to mention the silence, it was unbearable. It wasn't the comfortable silence, it was the deadly kind. The empty kind. The kind that seemed like you were all alone, where no one can hear you, but at the same time everyone was listening. He continued, unable to bear the suffocating silence a moment longer.

"Then, a few weeks before I turned five, they did the worst thing imaginable. First they did it on a normal human boy who was the same age as me. Oh forget about the age, he had the same damn birthday as me! They were trying to use someone as similar to me as possible. I still remember his name, Chris. They wanted to see how the two of us would react if we were surrounded by absolutely no colour at all. First they locked him in a small room, and I mean small. It was absolutely empty, nothing in it, and it was painted completely white, no colour at all. If you looked into the room, it seemed as though you could keep walking for miles and never get to the end. You couldn't tell where the room began or ended. It all looked the same. The only colour you would ever see was the colour of the little meal they would give you. And the damn meal wasn't even filling! Not only that, but they made you stare at this blaring white light.

"They came one day, took Chris, and locked him in the room for nine days straight. The room was very far from where I was kept, but I still remember him screaming for help, but then one day, he stopped. He stopped screaming, he was completely silent. After nine days, they finally let him out, and he had gone mental. He was. . . crazy. Not only that, but he had went blind too. He had lost his mind, so they. . . disposed of him, they realized that he was. . . useless. They thought he wasn't worth anything, so they killed him. To them, Chris was just a waste of space."

"Fang?"

"No, Max, please don't interrupt. It's easier for me to say it all at once rather than stopping now and starting again later. So anyways, once they had killed Chris, they wanted to see how I would react to the same kind of torture.

"They took me from my jail cell-place-thing. They locked me in the room, for the first two hours I didn't mind, but then suddenly, I hated it. I just hated it. The thing is, my hair is black, so they tied it back so tight that I wouldn't be able to see it, and they made me wear this collar thing that shocked me every time I brought my hands to my hair, the first time I tried to touch my hair they shocked me so bad I got a burn mark at the back of my neck. It's just that my hair is completely silky and straight, except for the bottom, you know how it sort of curls around my neck a little, yeah, that's why you've never seen it. Just in case you were wondering.

"They let me go a few hours without the light, but then suddenly, I saw a blinding light, it was coming from everywhere, there was nothing I could to not look at it. And it hurt, it hurt so much.

"Two days in, I couldn't handle it, it was hurting so much I couldn't handle it. After a while of searching, I finally found the door, something Chris was never able to do, and then I started banging on it and screaming at them. I screamed for hours at a time. I kept on telling them that I was human too, that what they were doing hurt. That it was painful. The light blended in with the white room, that slowly, everything that I was seeing, was slowly turning into nothing. I screamed for hours, for days, but they ignored me. When they had realized that I stopped resisting, they started shocking me for no reason, probably just to get me angry. And of course, I was angry, but I didn't do anything about it, because what could I do? Tell them to stop? Yeah right, like they would listen. Then, when nine days were finally over, they let me out. They were so shocked that I was still sane, that I hadn't lost my mind like Chris had. I wasn't insane, but I was practically dead. I felt as though there was nothing left to live for.

"But then they realized something was wrong. They took me out of the room, away from the blinding light. I had my eyes closed when they dragged me out. But when I opened them, it was the same as when they were closed. I couldn't see what was in front of me, I couldn't see what was behind me. I couldn't see anything." She got a horrified look on her face, when she realized what he was saying.

"They blinded you ?!" She looked on the brink of tears again.

He nodded, "But they didn't like it. I was the only blood they had left, but if I was blind, I was pretty much useless, so they fixed me up. Every single day, at the same time, they would inject some serum sort of things. At first I didn't know why they were doing it, but by then I didn't even care. It didn't matter. But then one by one, it was all coming back to me. The colours, I was beginning to see them again. First red, then grey, than white, and so on. I wasn't overly thrilled about getting to see white again, but I wasn't complaining. It took a lot of time, several surgeries, several of those serums, but in the end, it worked.

"Then one day, when I was finally able to look at colours again, in the dead of night, someone woke me up. I couldn't see the face, but once she spoke, I knew it was a women. It was your mother. She told me that she was there to help me. That she also had children that were Bloods, that she knew how difficult it was for me. She helped me escape, once we were far away from whatever that place was, she told me her name and she told me that she would drop me off somewhere. A place that I would be safe, forever.

"She told me about how I had a sister, and lastly, she told me about you. She told me that you would help me. And ever since that day, I was silent. But the funny thing was, I thought you were going to ask me questions, and lots of them. But you only asked me once, and when I said I didn't want to talk about it, you accepted that. You didn't pressure me to tell you anything. I said that I didn't want to talk about it, so you left it there, and never picked it back up. And I appreciated you greatly for that. I used to think that it was just because I was older, and you were respecting me, but then I realized that you did it because you accepted me.

"But that still didn't change what they did to me. I didn't go mad back then, but I think, if I ever go through that again, it would kill me. There's something about us, we rarely ever get sick, I actually don't think it's possible for us to go mad. They did horrible stuff to me that would have driven even the most saint person to madness, but I never broke. Max, I think that no matter what anyone would ever do, we would never go mental. We aren't special, Max, but we are different."

Max looked as though she was on the verge of breaking, "So, the people?"

"I don't know who they were, but I think they were scientists or something, since they were always wearing white coats."

"What do you think they're doing now?

"I don't know if they are still kidnapping Bloods, but if they are, I think that they are experimenting on them. It's ordinary humans who are doing this, they probably don't want us alive, so I think that they're killing every Blood that they find. They are probably afraid, that since we're stronger and more powerful then they are, we would be capable of, I dunno, taking over or something.

"I'm so sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? Your acting like a human, they always apologize for things that aren't their fault. It's pathetic." His voice was dripping with disgust.

"Let me finish." Fang nodded at her, "I'm sorry that you're unhappy. I'm sorry that you didn't get to enjoy your childhood. I'm sorry about what those idiots did to you. But I want you to know, that if you ever need to tell to anyone about anything, I'm listening."

"Thanks. But I'm not unhappy. Only people without a purpose are unhappy. I have a purpose."

"I know. But I just want you to know that I'm here for you."

"I know," She smiled at him. "Um, Max?"

"Yeah?"

"Iggy."

"I kind of doubt he would fit in this conversation. But what about him?"

"He hates me because he thinks I'm keeping secrets and am planning to hurt you or something. I bet he thinks that I kick kittens, pull the wings off of flies and poison the earth's water supply. 'Cause, you know, I must have covered all that evil stuff in kindergarten."

"Just forget about what he thinks. He'll come around sooner or later, but for now, if he ever says anything to you. Let me know, besides, I know that you'd never hurt me. I'll talk to him. Oh, and don't worry, I won't tell anyone what you told me. You can tell them if you want, or you can keep it a secret. Whatever you want to do, I will completely support you. Just do what you think seems fit."

"Okay." He always did. He never let anyone run his life.

"We should get back to the others." Huh? Oh yeah, the others. Meaning all of the younger kids who were waiting for the two of them in them cave, probably afraid, not knowing whether or not we were still alive. Yeah, those "others".

"And Fang."

"Yes?"

"You shouldn't have to bear such heavy burdens all by yourself. That's why I'm here. That's why all of the others are here. We will always be there for one another. Forever and always. Now let's get going." He nodded. He'd done enough talking for one day. Actually, he'd done enough talking to last him a lifetime.

 **Poor Fang! Oh, and who noticed the little bit of TMI reference. It isn't the exact quote, but I made it similar. And I know it seems like Fang told her pretty soon, but don't forget, this story may only have a few chapters, but Fang has known Max for several years now.**

 **Fly on**


	21. Chapter 20

**So, before I start with the chapter, just wanna thank my latest reviewer dontcallmemaxi (love the name❤️). Anyways, I'm just saying, there won't be too much action until another few chapters, but hey, that's the only way to move a story along right? Yeah. Not every chapter can be full of action. Anyways, onto the chapter!**

Chapter Twenty

Max's P.O.V.

I have to say, what Fang just told me, it was...terrifying. I know, me, Max, terrified. This is a disaster! Someone call the cops! Okay, maybe I'm overreacting, but how would you feel if your best friend had such a rough past? I just wish I could have been there for him. Nobody should ever have to go through what he went through. I can't even imagine what being locked in a room with no colour for nine days would do to me. And going blind?! I would have given up on the first day. But not Fang, he's tougher than nails. It's one of the reasons we all love him so much. He doesn't curse his circumstances. He has an overwhelming power, he accepts everything that happens, and transforms that into his own energy.

Fang is the strongest person I know, I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't met him, he's my best friend, the one I can talk to when I feel like I'm holding too much in. And you know what? I feel so...I don't know...relieved. No, not about what happened to him, what kind of a friend would I be if I was relieved because of everything he went through? Yeah, a pretty awful one. I feel relieved that Fang chose to come talk to me. Not to anyone else, he could have talked to Nudge about it, she is his sister after all, but no. He chose to come to me. It just makes me feel good that he knows he can trust me.

We walked into the cave and saw everyone sitting together in a small corner. Iggy was sitting on his own, a little further away from the others. The others, however, were all clinging to each other desperately. I only just realized how long we'd been gone for. The kids must have been scared that we were caught. I looked to my side and sneaked a glance at Fang. The strange thing was, he looked the same way he always does. Closed off to everyone around him. He turned his head to me and raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you with something?" I shook my head. He shrugged. Geez, for someone who completely opened up just a few minutes ago, he seems to have gone back to normal fairly quickly. But then I looked at him again, and this time, I saw something flicker in his eyes, it was kind of going on and off. Pain. He was trying to mask the pain he felt when he told me what had happened to him, it must have brought back some pretty awful memories.

"Guys, we're back." I tried to make my voice sound cheery, but I failed miserably.

The kids all turned their heads in unison to look at Fang and me.

"Max, Fang! Oh, I was so scared. I thought those bad men that came to our house got you guys."

"No, Angel. They didn't get us. We're absolutely fine, but we need to get out of here. Those bad men aren't very far from here. And they kinda, sorta, maybe, heard me scream Fang's name, so they may or may not be trying to find us at this very moment." I said, trying to sound casual. Angel looked like she had no clue what I was talking about. I wish I was like that, oblivious to all of the dangers in the world but clearly, I'm not. Gazzy and Nudge were both looking at me as though I was an idiot for screaming in the middle of the woods, where literally anyone could have heard me. And hear me, they did. Iggy however looked exasperated.

"We can always count on Max and Fang to screw up everyone's day. Trouble is hardly ever hiding, but you don't need to help it find us, Max. And Fang, I know that my sister is an idiot, but I thought you knew better." I looked at Fang, but he looked as though he didn't care about what Iggy just said. Like he didn't care about anything.

"Hey, I'm not an idiot."

"Sure your not, sis. Sure your not." He nodded his head in a way of understanding that made me want to smack him, but I resisted the urge. "So anyways, I'm glad to see that you guys are still alive. You were gone for so long that I thought something had happened to you. What took so long anyways?"

I turned my head to look at Fang, but he wouldn't meet my eyes. He seemed to be very interested in his sneakers at the moment "Oh, you know. Just stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" I shrugged. "Okay, then. Well, am I the only one that's hungry right now?"

Three other hands shot up in the air. Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge. Well, they weren't the only ones, I was about to raise my hand too, but then I felt Fang move a little next to me. I looked up at him and saw that he had his hand in the air too. Well, I'm also pretty hungry so I put my hand in the air too. But then a thought struck me. I didn't bring any money or food. Ugh, what kind of a leader was I?

"I brought some leftover money, but I don't think we should go to any fast food restaurant at the moment, you know, in case they're looking for us," They all nodded at Nudge. Huh, I guess that girl was more capable then I gave her credit for, "But I also brought some extra food that we had leftover." I looked over at Fang, and his eyes were the slightest bit wide, he was just as surprised as I was of finding Nudge so prepared for this. "I had a feeling neither Fang, nor Max would actually remember, so I thought I might as well just bring. But I must say, Max, and you too Fang. You guys are in charge, and it's kind of bad when the, you know, leaders forget that we have to eat in order to stay alive. Without food, we're going to die, so all I'm saying is, next time, remember to bring food." I opened my mouth to object to that, but then I realized I didn't have anything to say. Oh god. She was right, if she hadn't brought food with her, we would probably have to catch some wild rabbit or something. I looked up at Fang to see if he had anything to say, but he was just staring at her with a somewhat bored expression on his face.

 **So, like I had said, not much action, like, at all. But don't worry, just hang in there. I already wrote out the next chapter, so I'll get that up ASAP.**

 **Fly on**


	22. Chapter 21

**Okay, I noticed that I've been making these chapters a bit too serious, so I thought I'd tone it down a notch. So, I filled this chapter with a tiny bit of family fluff. Let me know what you think.**

Chapter Twenty-One

Fang's POV

Okay, um, this was new. Nudge actually came prepared, she brought money and food! Usually she depended on him and Max to get necessities, but he wasn't complaining or anything

"What did you bring?" Asked Gazzy.

"Well, I have some chips, a couple of chocolate bars-"

"Did you bring, you know, real food?" Iggy sounded a little impatient.

"So what, chocolate bars are fake?" Nudge looked hurt, and held a hand to her heart.

"No, I just-"

"Whatever," She sounded mad. "I brought some hotdogs. But they're cold."

"Don't worry, I can start a fire." Said Gazzy.

Then Max spoke up, "I'm not trying to sound ungrateful or anything, but we can't really live off if hotdogs for the rest of our lives. It would start to taste a little gross after a while. You know when you eat something too much and you start to get bored off it? Yeah, that'll probably happen to us with hotdogs."

Iggy answered her, "We aren't going to be eating hotdogs for the rest of our live, you brain-dead moron. Just for today. But you can starve if you really want to. Although, personally, I'm trying to avoid death. You know, avoiding death is actually a hobby of mine."

"Hey, who you calling brain-dead? You're so stupid you would probably add two and two together and come up with nine."

"Would not."

"Would too."

"Not."

"Would."

"Not."

"Would."

"Quit it!" Wow, who knew Angel had such a loud voice. "I'm younger than both of you, and I still don't do that!"

"But she started it!"

"I don't care who started it, I want it finished." Oh, um, okay. She was starting to sound a lot like Max.

"Wow, Ange. You're starting to sound a lot like me." Hey, that's what he had said.

"I learn from the best."

"Thanks, sweetie!"

"Will you guys please SHUT UP!"

"Iggy calm down. I know when you're hungry you get very cranky, but don't worry, like I said, I have food. If you choose to call it that. Gaz, start a fire."

"Yes sir! Um, I mean, yes ma'am! People get me some sticks to light and some stones to contain the fire. People, go, go, go!" Wow, he's an ambitious little bugger.

So, no need to be bored with all the details, basically they got a fire started and began to cook hotdogs on sticks.

After a moment of comfortable silence, not the awkward kind, just the peaceful kind that allows one to think, and Fang was thinking about whether confiding Max was his smartest decision, so far, it seemed okay, but he wasn't sure, then Nudge spoke up, slicing the silence in half with a knife, "Wow, this is actually so much fun! You know, I've always seen people in movies cook stuff over a fire while they went camping and stuff, but I never really thought it would be that much fun. Not to mention warm! Speaking of warmth, I miss our home. I know it's only been a bit, but it feels like ages! Oh no, my hotdog burnt! I'm not eating that! Iggy, give me yours!"

"What? No! I like my hotdog, I need my hotdog!"

"Humph! Fine then! Don't talk to me, I don't like you." Wordlessly Fang broke of half of his hotdog and handed it to his sister. Taking everyone by surprise. Yup, he really could kill people with kindness, "Whoa, Fang, really? It's okay, I don't need it. Or you know what? I'm hungry! I'll take it!" He looked over at Max and saw that she was smirking at him. What? So he couldn't be kind to his sister every now and then? Fine then.

They all finished their oh-so-filling dinner (note the sarcasm) and sat quietly for a few moments. Again with the comfortable silence. Then Angel spoke, "Can I go back to sleep? I woke up in the middle of the night because Fang heard something, but nobody hears anything anymore, and it's still really late. So can I go back to sleep?"

It was Max who answered, "She's right you guys, we hardly got any sleep, we need to rest. We're heading out first thing in the morning."

"Um... Max, what do you mean by that? Heading out where?"

"Well, for now, we're just trying to get away from here. The cops know we are nearby, they'll try to find us. You guys go to sleep, I'll wake you all up in a few hours, or if I hear something. Whichever comes first." Everyone nodded at her and walked deeper into the cave. Gazzy went over and when he walked past the fire and it immediately went out like light, then he walked over to Angel and laid down next to her. He looked up for a moment and casually looked around the cave, and when he thought no one was looking, he laid an arm over his sister protectively, as though to keep her safe from harm, and closed his eyes.

Fang moved his gaze towards his own sister and saw her laying down about five feet from Iggy, who was picking little pebbles up off the ground and throwing them at the ceiling. Each pebble hit the same exact spot every time. Iggy slowly turned his head in his direction and gave him the slightest of smiles, then turned back. Fang blinked. Perhaps he had imagined it? Iggy had been nothing but hostile to him lately, and he had every right to be. Fang turned around and saw Max sitting down at the front of the cave, glaring at the woods as though it threatened to hurt the kids. He walked up to her, silent as a shadow, but she didn't turn around to face him, she didn't know he was there.

Fang was about to open his mouth to say something, but she did first, "Go to sleep, Fang. It's late, um, early-UGH, whatever you want to call it. It's just not time to get up yet, go to sleep." How did she know he was behind her? He was usually so good at sneaking up on people, he would have to brush up his skills a little.

He looked at her and cocked his head slightly to the left, silently asking her a question without having to voice it, 'You good?'

"Fine." He nodded at her. "Fang, I'm not going to tell you again. Go. To. Sleep." He nodded again and turned around. He silently made his way to the back of the cave and lay down a little away form the others. He lay down neatly on his side and closed his eyes. Slowly drifting into unconsciousness.

 **This is was a sort of useless chapter, but whatever, I'm just throwing some ideas around. I'll try to post another chapter in a bit.**

 **Fly on**


	23. Chapter 22

**Told ya I'd get another chapter up fast. I'm a girl of my word. Anyways, so yeah.**

Chapter Twenty-Two

Max PoV

I lied, I wasn't fine, but I wasn't going to tell him that. He heard something only a little while ago, and here we are, going to sleep. We should be heading out now! We should not go to sleep and wait for them to find us. But the kids need to sleep. Fang, Iggy, and I could probably go without much sleep, but the others can't, they would be too tired. Don't get me wrong, I love each and every one of them, but sometimes they just can't keep up with us, and I don't blame them. They're just kids, not a bunch of indestructible soldiers. Not to mention what Fang had just told me mere moments ago. I don't know how someone could bare to cause anyone so much pain. It was just so inhumane. And Fang! Fang of all people! He may not be innocent, none of us are, but really, how could they even look at his big brown, almost black, eyes and still hurt him. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn't realize Nudge come and sit next to me, until she slipped her hand into mine.

I turned my head to look at her, and she looked a little, I don't know, off. Not her usual cheery, happy self. I put my arms around her and hugged her close to me, "Hey, Nudge. What's wrong? Are you alright?"

"Oh, Max! What isn't wrong?! We've lost our home, and now we're hunted fugitives! I'm scared, what's going to happen to us? I don't want to be lost, left out in the dark without a home to go to. All those normal kids out there, going to school, having fun with their friends, having a bed to sleep in! I don't have any of that! All because of what I am! Those humans don't understand anything! We're just like them! It doesn't matter what a person looks like!"

"Oh, sweetie. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry about all of is. I'm sorry we don't have a home, I'm sorry we're being hunted, I'm sorry we have people trying to kill us, I'm sorry about everything."

"Max, it's not your fault. It's just, I wish they knew how difficult it is for us. They don't understand what it's like, they are keep on trying to ruin our lives, they-"

"No!"

What the? Nudge and I turned around to look at everyone. Angel and Gazzy were still fast asleep, and so was Iggy. So that means. . . I quickly ran to Fang, but freaked when I couldn't find him. Then I saw him, but he was barely there, most of what I could see was a shadow. Not only that, but I saw him twisting and turning in his sleep, muttering things to himself.

"No, please! Not there! Don't do this!" He was quiet for a moment then he begun to speak again, "It hurts! Please, it hurts, stop this! Don't take me there. I can't go there again!" Oh god! He was having nightmares about that place that they locked him in all those years ago. Hearing him like this made me so guilty. When he first arrived he had nightmares for years, and he never spoke to anyone. Now I finally got him to open up, but talking about it reminded him. This was all my fault! If he hadn't told me what happened, this wouldn't be happening now!

"Fang," I whispered, when I touched his shaking shoulder, he completely solidified, no longer a shadow, "Wake up. It's okay. It's just a dream. There's nobody here. Nobody can touch you." He didn't get up, so I shook him lightly.

"Max, what's wrong with him?" Oh, right. I forgot Nudge was still here.

"I don't know, Nudge. But just don't tell anyone about this. Please just let me deal with this. Go lay down with the others, and don't tell them about this, okay?" She nodded. "Thanks." She smiled at me, but the smile didn't really reach her eyes, she was scared, but was trying to act tough. She got up and laid down on Angel's other side, she then put her arm around both Angel and Gazzy. She closed her eyes, but she obviously wasn't asleep. She wanted to know what was going on with her big brother.

I turned back to Fang and shook him again, this time a little harder, and whispered, "Fang, wake up. There's nobody here. Get up." This time, there was a little bit of desperation in my voice, "Please, get up." He didn't. I put my hand to his forehead, but pulled away almost immediately. He was burning up! Literally burning, it felt as though his skin was on fire! I ran over to Nudge's backpack and practically dumped everything out of it, finally after searching for what felt like forever, I found a water bottle. I ran back to Fang, and tore of a strip from my shirt and folded it a few times, then poured some water on it. I put it against his forehead and he immediately woke up and sat up straight.

"What the hell! Women, what are you doing? Trying to kill me?! That thing is cold!"

"I don't care, you're burning up! Now lay back down. Wait! First drink some water, here." I handed him the water bottle, and he downed it in three gulps. Okay then. "Nightmare?" I asked him. He just nodded. "I'm sorry." He gave me a questioning look, probably asking me why I was sorry. "It's my fault the nightmares started again. I got you to tell me all of that. I reminded you of all that stuff they did to you."

He looked at me and shook his head, "It's not your fault." He muttered.

"I feel so bad, though. I want to help you, but I don't know how."

"You can't help me." Was all he said, and he barely whispered it. "Never curse your situation. One would never be who they are today without what happened to them before."

"I think we should start heading out. We don't know how long till the cops find us. It could be hours, or it could be minutes. We don't know. So we should start heading out. I'll go wake up the others, you just sit here and hold this to your head."I said, handing him the wet cloth. He nodded.

I went to Nudge first, "Max, what was that about?"

"It was nothing, sweetie. Just forget about it."

"It's not that easy to forget something like that."

"Just try."

"Okay." Thank god, I thought she was going to try and push it.

I then leaned over her and shook Angel and Gazzy, "Come on, guys. Time to get up." They started blinking sleepily, "Come on, we have to get going."

I then walked over to my brother, but then decided I would have some fun. I kneeled down and screamed I his ear, "WAKE UP!"

He jumped up and screamed, "I'm pancake! Um, I mean, awake!" That got the kids up too and they all crowded around him and started laughing. I looked over and saw Fang, but his face looked completely blank. Usually he would have just smirked at something like this, but now, he's just completely out of it. This is all my fault, but I have to admit, it felt nice hearing the kids laugh like that. They haven't laughed that loud since the day Mom- you know what? I don't want to talk about it.

"Alright, you guys! We're heading out. Angel, Gazzy, you guys got your windbreakers? Your wings aren't exactly invisible." They nodded, and I heard Gazzy mutter, "Your blood stained hair and pants, not to mention cut cheek aren't exactly 'invisible' either." But I chose to ignore him, but he was right.

"Good, you're going to need them. Nudge, Iggy, figure out a way to tuck your tails into your pants or something." I heard Angel giggle at that. I remember what it was like, being so careless and immature. God, that feels so long ago.

Once everyone was ready, I walked around, inspecting them to make sure they looked like normal humans. Wow, that was such an awkward sentence. "Okay, let's head out!"

"Um, Max?"

"What is it now, Iggy?"

"Well, if that's how your going to act, I won't tell you."

"We don't have time for this!"

"Your ears are showing."

Oh.

 **Fly on**


	24. Chapter 23

**I know, I know, I suck at updating, but seriously, I hate school. Who else hates school? See my point, school is seriously the one place in the world that doesn't go out of business, and I can't imagine why. It's so freaking boring!**

Chapter Twenty-Three

Max's POV

Ok, after that awkward moment, we grabbed the few things we had brought with us and walked out of the cave. God, I wish we had a car, or even a driver's license, for that matter. First we just walked around in the woods, trying to find a river, but to no success. So we kept wandering around for another half hour, until we FINALLY came across a stream. I immediately jumped in and started rubbing my pants, and after a little bit, all the blood had seeped out into the stream, and I swear, it felt so good. Next I rubbed my arms and face, getting all of the gritty dirt off of me. Then I finally moved on to my hair, rubbing all of the mud and blood out of it. Needless to say, putting it all together, I took a VERY long time, but the others didn't really mind. When I got out at long last, my clothes were completely soaked, and clung to me, and Nudge kindly pointed out that my brown hair still had some red in it, making it look like chocolate mixed with blood, but I honesty didn't care, the humans would probably just think I dyed it or something. Besides, it probably gave me that "I'm so cool" look.

We walked for about three hours, maybe more. Don't forget, I'm part animal, animals have no sense of time. Anyways, we walked for what seemed like forever and a half, and we finally saw the city. Ugh, I have no idea how Mom managed to do that every single month, it would probably have driven me mad. But then again, I get angry pretty easily. I don't really get physical, but let's say I have a pretty snarky attitude.

So anyways, after walking for about half an hour longer, we actually reached the city, as in actually got in the city. I turned to look at all of the others. Nudge looked like she was about to jump out of her skin, so she immediately grabbed ontogeny back of Iggy's shirt for support. Iggy jumped when she touched him, but when he saw who it was, he visibly relaxed. Angel looked scared, so I reached over and and carried her in my arms, and she immediately wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in my still-blood-stained hair. I looked at Gazzy, and I felt pretty sad, he looked terrified. I saw him as he started to reach for Fang's hand, but then thought better of it and let his hand drop to his side. But then something unexpected happened, Fang reached down and grabbed Gazzy's hand. I watched as the little boy looked at the older one with wide eyes, then I saw the smaller hand tighten around the bigger one. Fang didn't react in any way, seeing as we'd already been in the city, but for some reason, I was still nervous. I didn't blame the little kids for being afraid, I felt like climbing the walls. This was our first time meeting normal humans, other than my mother, of course. Well, besides the time that Fang and I went to go buy groceries a while back, but that time we had barely spoken to a soul. If someone were trying to follow us, it would have been like trying to follow a ghost. We even used the self-check out. It was difficult, but we managed. But that was only once, the second place we went to, we went to the actual register thing, but that was only because the self-check out had been way too annoying.

Last time I didn't pay attention to anything, I had happened to find my boots VERY interesting. But this time, I was really paying attention to the people. I must say, this is nothing like how I expected the city to be like. I thought everyone would be, you know, cruel to one another. That's what I was taught. The first lesson we all learned was that humans are cruel, and we must never trust anyone we don't know. But here, all of these people are so, I don't know, kind to one another. It's unnatural. I had no idea what to do first, so I just walked, the others simply followed me.

After wandering aimlessly for what felt like forever, some random dude walked up to us. Oh no, what did we do wrong? Does he know what we are? Can he see my ears? I didn't want this stranger to hurt Angel, who was still in my arms, so I put her down and lightly pushed her behind me, and Iggy immediately grabbed her and hoisted her into his arms. He may not look look it, but he is pretty strong. Anyways so the guy comes up to me and stuck his hand out. What the…? I just stood there for about a minute staring at his hand with absolutely no idea what to do. Okay, you may be laughing, but imagine yourself in my shoes. I was never taught what to do. If any of you can tell me what to do when somebody sticks out their hand, let me know. I have a feeling this is going to be something that comes up pretty often.

So anyways, I simply stood there, staring at his hand, until he gave up and let it drop to his side, thank god. Then he spoke up, "Hi, I'm Sam." (A/N: Don't worry, Sam won't play a too big role in this story. I'm actually not sure if I want him to come back, let me know what you think.)

I wasn't about to tell him my real name, so I said, "I'm Phoenix."

"Nice name." I nodded at him, but didn't say anything, "Are you new around here? I don't recognize you." I nodded again, "So, are you lost?" I shook my head. Jeez, what was this guy's deal? Is it so hard to just let somebody be? "Really? You look quite lost."

"Well, we aren't lost, so can you please get lost." It wasn't a question, it was more of a demand.

"Hey," He out up his hands in the universal 'whoa, calm down' gesture, "I was only offering you some help. Like, if you were lost, I could point you in the right direction or something."

"Look, I just don't trust strangers. That just isn't my style."

"Okay then, as I told you before, I'm Sam. There, now we aren't strangers." Was this guy kidding? Is this how all humans were? I hope not.

"Listen, I am going to be nice. Get out of my face before I rip your spleen out of your nose."

"Do you ever have any non-violent thoughts?"

"Are you drunk?" He just gave me the 'what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about' look. "Oh my God! I. Do. Not. Need. Your. Help. Now if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you left us alone."

I turned to look at Fang for help, but he was a little too busy glaring daggers at the guy.

Sam looked at Fang, with an expression that looked a little bit like disgust, "Dude, what's up with you?"

Fang looked at him, his glare not wavering for even a second, "I'm pretty sure she asked you to leave."

Sam ignored that, "So, what's your name?"

"Griffin."

"Man, what's with the bird names?" Then he pointed at Iggy, "Let me guess, you're Raven." Iggy shook him head. "So, what happened to your face?" His question as directed at me, he was talking about where the bullet clipped me.

That made me angry, "Why do you care, huh? You just march up here, start making fun of our names, and now you demand to know what happened to my face!"

"Dude, chill out. I wasn't demanding anything, I was just curious."

"Yeah, well curiosity killed the cat!

Iggy came to stand next to me and put a hand on my shoulder, "Max, calm down. Don't let this guy get you angry, just ignore him." Iggy whispered quietly.

"But he's being an idiot!"

"He is but I don't care. But I don't want you getting yourself into trouble because of something as petty as this. Just forget about this guy, let's go get something to eat." I sighed, but then nodded at him. But when I turned around I noticed the group of people who had come to watch the little show we had put on. Lovely, it's our first day here and we already drew so much attention to ourselves. Fan-freaking-tastic. Could things get any better?

I turned around again to glare at Sam and he flinched, then I turned back to the group of people and said loudly, "Nothing to see here, folks. You guys can just get on with your lives. I was just dealing with this guy here who started insulting my siblings." I smirked when I saw Sam's eyes widen by the amazingness of my lying. (Yes, amazingness is a word, they just haven't gotten around to putting it in the dictionary yet.) It's funny how I can do that, you see, he wasn't insulting us at all. Well, okay, maybe our "names", a little, but who really cares about that. Ha ha, see how funny I am? No, well then you have serious problems. I looked at all the people as they began to walk away, some of them shaking there heads, some turning back to look at us, and some whispering with one another. Here and there I kept hearing things along the lines of, "Goodness, that boy is so rude. Picking on young innocent children, he should know better. If I could, I would turn around and give him a piece of my mind." Oh, well then why don't you? You know, just a question. And really, "innocent"? Please, women, these kids here are anything but innocent. Okay, maybe I should be easier on her, she was trying to be a little nice. What matters is that nobody realized what we are.

And so that's how we make our first impressions. Wow, we totally rock at this. I really think we blend in pretty well. We were on a roll.

 **So, how was it? I'll post the next chapter ASAP.**

 **Fly on**


	25. Chapter 24

p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"strong style="max-width: 100%;"Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Usually I'd try to give some lame excuse, but seriously, this time, I've got nothing. Anyways...Just wanted to thank my latest reviewer! So, yeah./strong/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"Chapter Twenty-Four/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"Max's POV/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"Okay, when Sam asked us if we were lost, we should've said yes. We've been wondering around like this for so long, I'm about to lose my mind. "Hey, Max."/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"I turned to look at Angel, "Yes, sweetie?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""I'm really hungry. I was trying not to say anything, because we aren't really in the best situation right now, but I'm just so hungry. I can't stand it anymore."/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Oh, Angel. Why didn't you say anything? You should have told me. Well then, if I'm going to be honest, I'm starving too, let's find some food place, and get something to eat. But first, Nudge? How much money did you bring?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""$1500." She said as though it were no big deal./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Where did you get that money from?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Under your pillow," She said nonchalantly, "you really need to find a better hiding spot. Like when I wanted to hide something, I have this small place in my closet at home-"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Don't talk about home anymore, please Nudge. We no longer have a home. They know where we live. We can never go back home, we have no home." I looked at her and she looked like she was ready to cry. Oops./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"I looked at Iggy and he was saying stuff to Nudge to get her to cheer up. He was saying stuff like, "Don't worry, alright? We've got each other. My home is wherever you guys are." Awww, he's so sweet. "Hey, Max! Not to be pushy or anything, but can we please get something to eat. I feel like my dog instincts are kicking in, I seriously feel like chasing a cat right now." At this, Gazzy and Angel began to laugh. Nudge smiled a little/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Funny. And yeah, me too." At this, Fang started backing away from me slowly. Huh? Oh, wait-he's part cat. Oops. Whatever. "Okay, so, I have no idea where we are, but I'm seeing those little food stand things every five minutes, so the next time we see one we can-"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""There!" Okay then. I walked up to the stand with the little kids close behind me, and Fang bringing up the rear./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"I have to say, I liked this stand. The guy was selling burgers and those really big pretzels. I love those, clearly the guy noticed me eying them because he simply said, "How many?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Two." He nodded. "Okay and I'll also get two burgers."/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"I turned to Nudge, "Can I have one of those big pretzel things?" The guy nodded./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"Then Iggy spoke up, "I'll get two of those pretzels and two burgers." I raised my eyebrow at him, but he just shrugged at me./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"Next was Gazzy, "Um, okay... I'll get a burger and a pretzel and my sister will just get a pretzel. Cool?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Cool," the guy responded to him, smiling "And now the only one left is you, sir." He said, turning to face Fang. Sir? Haha, this guy is so funny./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""I'll get three burgers and three pretzels." The dude raised his eyebrows at Fang, but Fang calmly said, "I'm sorry, is there a problem?" But the scary thing was, he said it in the deadly, calm voice, the kind that just makes you shiver head to toe. Huh? Wonder where he learned that? Oh yeah, he learned it from me! Wow, just wow. Okay, anyways, the dude started giving us what we had asked for, we payed, and not too much time later, we were, sort of, well fed, and back on the road. The kids wanted to stay there a little longer because they liked talking to the guy, but I dragged them away. You know what they say: you can never be too cautious. And besides, if we stayed any longer, we would have boughten more food. If you still don't get what I'm trying to say, basically, we need our money, and spending it on food we don't need isn't going to help/p  
hr style="background: var(-horizontal-line-color); height: 0.5px; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"I must say, I LOVE those big pretzels! I remember when I was seven, Mom once brought us some. We all got one but I just loved them so much, I wouldn't stop complaining once I had finished mine. All the others were watching me go from one person to the next asking them for theirs, and then laughing when I was told off by Mom. Well, okay, I didn't go to EVERYONE, I stayed away from Fang. If you tell him this, I'll deny it, but I used to be afraid of him. He had this weird aura around him. Not to mention his continuous 'if-you-come-near-me-I'll-snap-your-neck' face. I have to say, when you see a seven year old like that, it makes tarantulas look like little fairies. So needless to say, I was really surprised when he came over to me, soundlessly broke his pretzel in half, handed one half to me, and walked away. Let's just say, ever since then, he was my best friend. Yes, I know, ridiculous. I literally sold away my soul for a pretzel, but hey, it's food, is it not? So, you could pretty much imagine what I was like right now, now that my pretzels were done./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Iggy?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""NO! I will not give you my pretzel! Back off!" Okay./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""I didn't even say anything yet!"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""But you were about to!"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"You can't argue with logic like that, "Well, anyone willing to donate food to the homeless?" I swear, they were looking at me like I was crazy. I was about to ask them why, when I realized that I wasn't the only one who was homeless now. I swear, life hates us./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Here." I turned and saw Fang holding out half a pretzel to me. Let's just say that brought back memories. In my mind, I saw a little seven year old boy who looked like he would kill your entire family and enjoy every second of it, holding out a pretzel to me. I looked at him, and saw him smirking at me, and I realized he must have been thinking the exact same thing./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""So, Max, not to ruin the moment down memory lane or anything, but are we just gonna be sitting in this park for the rest of our lives? Like, what are we gonna do now? It's not like we can go home. Wait, can we?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"I looked over at Nudge sadly, and saw she had a hopeful look on her face. "Nudge, I hate to break this to you, but we can't go back home. Not yet. It's probably swarming with cops. We might go back later, just to see what's become of our home, but for now, I don't really have much of a plan. So, I'm open to suggestions."/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"Then Iggy spoke up, "Like you said, our home of probably swarming with cops. So don't you think they might have noticed the pictures of us hung on our walls? Yeah, they probably did, therefore, as of today, we are hunted fugitives. They probably have 'Wanted' posters everywhere." I did not think of that one./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"Then Angel decides to add her opinion, "I haven't seen any posters of us."/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Well, then it's only a matter of time." I have to say, Iggy definitely has a way of brightening everyone's day. "I say, once we're done eating, we walk around a bit, try and steal some newspapers, or catch glimpses of the news. We could always just walk into those electronics sections in stores, and just stand there watching the TV. It's normal for kids to do that, Mom told me."/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""I guess you're right. Who wants to try that out?" I asked. Everyone raised their hands. I'll admit. It was a pretty useless question, since we had absolutely no other plan, so we were kinda just going with the flow. "So, should we walk into some store right now, or should we wait?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"Nudge answered, "I saw some store a while back. It was called T-Mart or something. It looked pretty big, we should check there. And, I think we should go now, I mean, really, what are we waiting for? The police to come find us? Yeah, I don't think so. I don't know about you guys, but I wanna live until I'm at least 19. But I don't want to go to school. I mean it's pretty useless. Look at you two, you're 14 and I bet you haven't even seen what a school looks like. I wonder what a school bus looks like. You think it's cool? I hate how you have to wear seatbelt in a car, but not in a bus. Like, what's with that? Not that I've ever had to wear a seatbelt, but I really think it's annoying. The way it's pressed against your throat. What if it chokes you? If that ever happened to me I'd-"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Nudge?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Yeah?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Shut up." She looked hurt, but she kept her mouth quiet after. Yup, only Nudge can go from trying to stay alive, to complaining about seat belts. She truly has a gift, and she's more than willing to share it with everyone. Isn't she an awesome kid?/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;""Okay, so yeah, we should get going. Wanna lead the way, Nudge? After all, you're the one who saw it." She just nodded her head, turned around, and started walking in the opposite direction. Oh, bless you child. I thought she would have one of her 'moments' again. Anyways, after walking for another five minutes, we made it to the incredibly large store, T-Mart. Weird name. Humans, honestly, they have no imagination. I mean seriously, what does 'T-Mart' even mean? Exactly./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"I have to admit, I was pretty nervous about going in there. There would be so many people, and no way to run away under severe circumstances without drawing too much attention to ourselves. I don't really do 'running away' but hey! You gotta do what you gotta do. And I gotta survive. And if I have to run away to make that happen, well then God knows I'm gonna. Anyways, we walked into the store, and I immediately felt like I couldn't breathe. There were so many people! Don't these kids have school? God, it's like the whole world decided to shop here the day we did. It's like they knew we were coming./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"But it wasn't THAT awful. I mean, the people looked quite nice, but you should never fall for that. Looks can be deceiving, always keep one eye opened, and one on your back, that way nothing can take you by surprise. But the thing that really caught my eye, was all the food. We have never had that much food. Mom would bring us stuff to eat, but just barely enough. And we didn't have snacks and that kind of stuff. The only time we had extra food was when we saved some from the times when Mom brought us stuff for our birthdays./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"I turned to look at the others, "Okay guys, we're going to be splitting up in to pairs. Look around and see what you can find. Do not pick up anything you want to buy, we can't waste money like that. Even if it's for cookies." I added, looking at Arrow. I saw his face drop a little and felt bad, but I really wasn't going to change my mind. "Okay, we can meet back up at the park in half an hour. Got it?" Everyone nodded their heads. "Good. Now, who do you guys want to partner with?"/p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"As soon as I said that, Angel grabbed Nudge's hand, and Gazzy and Iggy raced to each others sides, "Okay. Jeez, thanks guys, totally feeling the love here. Nah, I'm just messing with you. Alright, let's get going." With that, the kids immediately sped off, and Fang turned to look at me, and pointed at something behind my head. I turned around, and not too far away, was the electronics' section. I turned back and smiled at him, "Well, that was easy." And we started making our way there. All the while, laughing at how the others had sped off in the on the opposite direction. Well, I was laughing, Fang was just doing whatever it is that he does./p  
p style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: #1b1b1b; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"strong style="max-width: 100%;"Fly on/strong/p 


	26. Chapter 25

**I know, I'm a crap updater, but really this is kind of your fault. If you people want faster updates, I suggest you start reviewing people! Or else my updating schedule will remain messed up. You have been warned!**

Chapter Twenty five

Max's POV

I wasn't laughing anymore. The second we reached the electronics section, every single T.V. had a picture of the "family photo" we took last year. See, we thought we'd try to be as normal as possible, as normal for freaks at least, so then my mom suggested taking a family photo. Except none of us actually knew what that was so we just stood there for a few seconds, just staring at her, and she just sighed in a way only the mother/caretaker of six mutant Blood children could. Which is to say, very heavily. Then she proceeded to explain to us what it was. Fang, Iggy and I didn't really want to, but the others seemed so thrilled, we just couldn't shoot them down. It may be sad, but they had probably only ever looked that happy once or twice in their lives.

My mom had sat in a chair, holding Angel in her lap, while the rest of us were sitting around the chair, making funny faces and absolutely no effort to cover our Marks. I actually had my tongue stuck out like a real dog would, Iggy was wagging his tail, making it appear blurry. Nudge was wearing a hat with cat ears sewn onto it (she had made it herself, she was quite a talent for sewing). Yup, how appropriate. She actually looked like she had dressed up for Halloween, only the tail looked pretty real. Gazzy and Angel had their wings spread out, looking powerful and proud, and Fang was just looking like normal human being, except for them you know, cat ears poking out of his hair. Yup, we looked awesome.

Let me just say, once we saw that, Fang and I reached behind our heads and pulled up our hoods, trying to cover as much of our faces as possible. We look almost exactly how we looked back then. Except, you know, our hair is longer. But other than that, we look exactly the same. Yes, Fang's hair is also longer, he doesn't care too much if it grows out, just as long as it doesn't get too bad. Right now, it just barely brushes the base of his neck.

I turned to look at Fang, and I shared a look that clearly said 'wait a little while, let's see what else they got.' Yeah, apparently they got a lot. As a matter of fact, they got everything. Literally everything. It's like they took a picture of every inch of our house. Including my room! Have these people never heard of privacy?! Clearly not. I have stuff in their that I'd rather people didn't see. Well, I guess that's not good. When I told Fang as much, he replied with a sarcastic, "Thank you for that, Captain Obvious."

Hah, he thinks he can beat the Sass Queen? I think not, peasant! So I replied back with a sassy, "Very funny Sergeant Sarcasm."

Of course, he wasn't going to have any of that, so he went all, "Nice one Corporal Comeback." Darn it! I've got nothing left.

I looked at him, "You win this round, but this isn't over. The Sass Queen will strike again!"

"The Sass Queen? More like the trash queen."

"I'm not a mirror, Fang." I knew he was about to come up with another sarcastic remark, so I gave him a look that clearly told him to shut the hell up, or else.

But he just smirked at me, as though daring me to do something. So, of course, I did. I went to stand right next to him, and he gave me a questioning look. So I answered him by kicking his legs out from under him, and he immediately fell to the floor and his hood fell off his head, but I didn't really care. He was still wearing his bareball cap, no one would see his ears. While I stood there, busting my gut laughing at him, he pulled my ankle, and I dropped right next to him, twisting my injured leg. I was about to cry out in pain, but I stifled it with my laughter. I noticed him staring at me, as though trying not to laugh, but only semi-succeeding. Well, okay, since this is Fang, it wasn't really a laugh, I honestly don't know what to call it. Whatever. The fact that he was laughing at me was enough to get me annoyed of him, so I whacked him upside the head, and his cap fell off. Oops. My bad. I tried to give Fang an innocent look, but he just looked like he didn't care, so...

Let's just say that caused quite the commotion. All around, people were staring at us and freaking out. Little babies were crying, children were screaming, teenagers were backing away from us, all the while with their phones pulled out, snapping pictures. Wow, priorities, huh? And the parents, let's just say they were standing protectively in front of their kids, but the thing was, they themselves looked so terrified, they wouldn't have been able to protect anyone from even a kitten. I know I made a devastating mistake, and I would have to pay for it. I just wonder how much it would cost. I've only got a little over $1000. So, of course, we took this as our cue to leave. Fang jumped up and pulled his cap on, then grabbed my arm and together we raced out of the store.

It was bad, I know. But seriously? It was almost worth it. The looks on their faces, priceless! Can you laugh while running for your life? I can. So, as you can probably assume, 30 minutes were almost up, which meant that the others would be here in a few minutes. Hopefully they noticed the screaming people and decided to leave the place. But knowing them, they would probably just think that there was a sale somewhere and ignore the obvious warnings. I honestly didn't think it would be the smartest decision to go back in their to look for them, so I decided we would wait for them to turn up. So I went over to a big tree and leaned against the trunk and closed my eyes for a moment, thinking. God, I was so stupid, picking a fight with Fang in the middle of a place filled with human people. But seriously? Didn't these people have work to go to? School to attend?

I just sat there for a few moments, with my eyes closed, and when I opened them again, I saw pools of dark brown eyes staring back at me. Fang was sitting directly in front of me, his head tilted slightly. Then he asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Let's just say I was taken aback, so I answered his question with one of my own, "What are you thinking about?"

He narrowed his dark eyes at me, "I'm thinking about what you might be thinking about." He responded coolly.

I groaned and responded, "I'm thinking about what an idiot I was for pulling off a stunt like that."

"Your right, you are an idiot."

"Hey, aren't you supposed to talk me out of that?"

"I'm just agreeing with you. Is that wrong?" I'm going to be honest, I liked Fang when he didn't make me feel like a retard. So we sat there for a a few minutes, both of us watching every passing human with narrowing eyes. Glaring at them as they walked by us, as though daring them to come a step closer. Let's say that they were smart enough not to.

Then, in the distance, I heard the familiar voice of a little girl, "But I wanted it! It was so pretty! It's eyes matched mine!"

Another familiar voice of an older girl answered calmly, "We've been over this, we were told not to buy anything, so I'm sorry, but I can't buy you that stuffed cat."

"It was a kitten!"

"Whatever."

I called out to them, "Angel! Where are you? Nudge?"

A little voice answered form behind me, "We're right here!" As I turned around, I felt a pair of skinny arms go around my neck and I quickly hugged her back. Then I held out one arm to Nudge, who was just standing there looking awkward, and she immediately collapsed into my embrace and buried her face in my hair. I turned to look at Fang, but he was just staring at us, his face carefully blank. His emotionless mask put carefully in place. I held a hand out to him too, but he just shook his head.

Once we were done with our huge reunion (I know, we had only been away from each other for half an hour, but seriously, we were amongst humans now, we were all scared. That had to have been the freakiest thirty minutes of our lives. Well, okay, not really, but whatever, I asked the girls what they were arguing about, and I found out that Angel really wanted a stuffed cat —I'm sorry-kitten—but it cost $40, and we just didn't have money to simply waste like that. Once I told her as much, she went into a little tantrum and walked over to the swings, sat down, refusing to speak with any of us.

But there was still something bothering me, "Wait, why didn't you come when you heard the screaming?"

"Oh! That was you, wasn't it? I thought there was a sale somewhere." Figures. Then we all went back to sitting silently. Let's just say, another ten minutes passed with us all like that.

I was beginning to get seriously worried, Iggy and Gazzy both knew not to goof off, at least not while we were here, so why hadn't they arrived yet? I was really starting to freak out, so I went to sit next to Fang, but almost screamed when I couldn't find him. Instead, I calmly called out, "Fang, this is not time for fun and games, come here. Now." And with that, he appeared behind me, walking out of the shadows cast by the tree, making me jump out of my skin. He looked at me questioningly. "Why aren't the others back yet?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Want me to go look?"

"No!" I answered a little too quickly, and he raised an eyebrow, but didn't press the matter. Phew.

Then suddenly, I saw something crash into Angel from the corner of my eye. Gazzy. I was about to go hug him, until I saw that he had his wings stretched out to their full length, and tears streaming down his face. Wha…? I was about to ask him what was wrong, but then he turned his head to face me, his eyes looking crazed, "Iggy!" He practically screamed, "They're chasing him! He told me to fly, so I flew away as fast as I could, but he's still running!" What?!

I ran up to him and grasped his shoulders and started shaking him, "Where is Iggy?!" I screamed, "Where is he?!" But before Gazzy could answer my question, I heard some faint screaming in the background. Gradually, the sound got louder and I could make out what was being said.

"Run! Get out of here! Go! Nudge, run! Max, get out of here! Go!" I turned and saw Iggy running towards us, a bloody gash on his arm. And right behind him, were over a dozen cops, a few holding guns, a few sitting in their cars. Right on his tail. Literally.

Well, shit.

 **Finally, after a whole bunch of non-actiony chapters, we now have a little something to look forward to. So... what do you think is going to happen next. Review! Or else I'll take a crazy long time to update my next chapter.**

 **Fly on😘**


	27. Chapter 26

**Hey guys, I'm back. Also, I'm seriously starting to have major writer's block. I know what I want to happen. I just don't know how I'll get it to happen, if any of you have any ideas, let me know. Also, I'm going to start adding in some new characters, so if you guys have a character you want in here, leave it in the reviews. I'll need all the info on them: Name, are they a Blood, age, gender, appearance. The whole shebang. They may be a major character, they may be a minor, but that depends on if I come up with my own characters, but I'll try to add in yours too. It would be more likely for me to use your character if you come up with something in the next few chapter. Next, a quick thank to my latest reviewer, Sarah. Lastly, a heads up, I'm thinking to changing my own name to "lethalpancake" or something, so if you see this story under a different author's name, know that it's still me. Whoa, that was a huge author's note. I'll let you get on with the chapter.**

Chapter Twenty six

Iggy's POV

Although Max had told them all to find the electronics section, the first place the two boys went was where the food was. Not really the food, more like the treats. They both stood there, drooling slightly, but quickly pulled themselves together. They looked at each other, and simply nodded. And with that, they ran to the shelves and began pulling out boxes. Cookies, chocolates, cupcakes, brownies. They just ran back and forth between the aisles, grabbing whatever looked good (which just so happened to be everything). After they had a stack of about twenty seven boxes, a thought struck him. And it wasn't like a stupid thought like, "why is the sky blue?" it was more like—

"Dude, how are we gonna pay for this?"

Gazzy looked thoughtful for a moment, then answered, "We, my friend, are going to go to Max, drop on our knees and beg her for money, like the good homeless children we are. I'll try out Angel and Nudge's Bambi eyes, and you can try to pull off some puppy eyes. It shouldn't be too difficult for you." Iggy nodded at Gazzy, quite impressed by the plan the little boy had worked out. Why hadn't he thought of that first? It was so brilliant yet so simple. There were absolutely no flaws in the plan. Iggy took one last look at Gazzy, ruffles the kid's blond hair, and proceeded to grab more boxes off the shelf.

Until someone came up to them.

"What's this?" He asked Gazzy.

"It's a girl," Gazzy replied, making everything into a joke, as he always did, "Surely you've seen one before. Your sister is one." Smart aleck.

The girl still stood there, "Hi, I'm Shannon. I just happened to notice that you boys picked out a rather large amount of food. I just wanted to make sure you put it all back."

Iggy looked at her coolly, like he'd seen Fang do a hundred times, "What makes you think we're putting anything back?"

"Well, I noticed that your parents aren't here, so..." She left the rest of her sentence hanging in the air.

Gazzy looked at here "Yeah, but our sister is here, so she'll pay for us." He said in a "Duh!" voice.

"I actually-"

But Iggy cut her off, "Listen! We don't give a shit about what you 'actually' whatever. So can you please get the hell out of here?" But he didn't say it as a question, he said it as a demand. Iggy was usually pretty kind, but once you piss him off, he didn't give two craps about anyone. And this women, ugh, she was so freaking annoying, she didn't know how to take "get lost" for an answer. The women seemed to notice his anger, because she immediately turned around and walked away, a scowl on her face. Which only made her look uglier. He usually didn't get this angry, but for some reason her presence had just pissed him off.

Iggy turned to Gazzy, "Was it something I said?" And they both burst out laughing.

"No, I think she just had somewhere else to be." Gazzy said, wiping a fake tear from his eye. "Anyways, could you wait right here? I have to grab something."

"Sure." And with that, he watched the little blond boy run off, weaving his way through the crowd. Iggy waited, and let his thoughts wander. What the hell had that been about? Stupid lady. Gazzy had finally returned, and his hands were clutching something behind his back.

"What's that?"

And from behind his back, Gazzy pulled out… a packet of dog food? "I was thinking that I'd give you a treat every time you be a good little boy. Now sit!" He commanded. Iggy didn't sit, "I said sit!" The little boy ordered again.

"Shut up before I go get some bird feed and twigs for you to make a nest to sleep in. You know, just in case you get tired." That shut him up. And with that, the boys grabbed their boxes of cookies, cupcakes, brownies, muffins and other amazingly delicious stuff, and decided to look around a little, to find the electronics section. Max would probably be there. Then they could beg her for money. Ugh, beg. Such a dog-like term. Iggy knew he was practically part dog, what with the dog ears and whatnot. But begging? That was just taking it all to a new level. He let a little dog-like growl escape his throat.

Gazzy's head whipped his head to face Iggy, a look of disbelief and suppressed humour written across his face. "Dude, did you just…growl? Like a real dog?" His voice held a note of mirth. Iggy didn't nod, he was too busy looking at the floor tiles. They were very interesting. He slowly felt his face grow hotter with embarrassment. He didn't need a mirror to tell him he was blushing. In the distance, Iggy heard screams, but simply dismissed them, for there was probably just a sale somewhere.

Gazzy started laughing at him, and didn't bother to stop when Iggy turned to glare at him. In fact, that simply made him laugh harder. That's it! Iggy snapped and pounced at Gazzy slightly. Exactly like a dog would. He started to feel sick with himself, until he realized that Gazzy had jumped pretty high with fright. Actually, he jumped and didn't come back down. Iggy looked up, and sure enough, there was Gazzy. In the air. Flying. His wings spread out, looking powerful. Screams. It was the only thing he could hear. From every angle, that was the only sound he heard. The sounds of the screams echoing off the walls, and coming right back at him, making his ears drums pound. He was about to pull on Gazzy's leg, until he noticed the two security guards running towards them, holding walkie-talkies to their mouths, calling for back up. He quickly looked up at Gazzy and shouted, "Get out of here! Screw the wings! Fly back to the others! Warn Max! Go!"

And with that, Gazzy took off, flying full speed at a window. At the last moment he brought his arms up to shield his face and crashed through it with incredible force, glass showering the still screaming people. Some of the glass flew at Iggy, shredding his face, but he didn't even care. Iggy noticed that that caught the security guards for just a few seconds. A few seconds were all he needed. He quickly turned around, grabbed three box of chocolate chip cookies and took off, running as fast as he could, which was pretty fast. His tail was just dying to wag. So what the heck? Why not let it? His tail tore through his pants, and he didn't know why, but it made him feel better. Like he could really run. He turned around for a second and looked at the two unbelievably slow so-called "security guards" chasing after him. Iggy stopped for a second, turned to them, and shot them a nasty look, laughing out loud and screaming, "Losers!" He kept laughing, threw one of his boxes at them, and began to run again, when he heard it.

In the distances, not to far away, were the sounds of cars screeching on the road. He quickly snuck a glance and saw the police cars, and dropped all the boxes. Well shit.

 **Kind of short, but like I said earlier—writer's block. Also, if you people want updates, I need reviews! It's not that difficult, I'm not updating till I get reviews. Just leave a short review, people. Anyways…**

 **Fly on**


	28. Chapter 27

**Hey guys, I'm back! First thing's first, I have changed my name ot "lethalpancake" but don't worry, it's still me. (For those who don't know, I used to be DemonicAngel404.) Next, thanks to dontcallmemaxi, for your second review. Also, this chapter isn't very long cuz I'm going through the worst case of writer's block in history. I'm serious! Anyways, so yeah. Also, REVIEW!**

Chapter Twenty-seven

Iggy's PoV

"Run! Get out of here! Go! Nudge, run! Max, get out of here! Go!" Iggy screamed at the top of his lungs. He was running but his arm was killing him, not too long ago, a cop had shot at him and clipped his arm, lucky for him it wasn't his leg, or he would have been as good as dead. His arm was bleeding a lot, and he knew that if he didn't stop the blood flow soon, he would lose too much blood and pass out. But at the moment, that was the least of his worries. 'Yeah, blood loss,' he thought, 'who cares about that nowadays? Pfft! Well, this is just sad. I can manage to even be sarcastic in my head. I spend so much time with Max, I'm starting to talk like her. I'm becoming a Maxkateer.'

He saw Nudge's mouth open in a silent scream. Gazzy had tears streaking his dirt-caked face. Angel had a look of terror. Fang was looking at him with an almost sad look. And lastly, he saw Max, whose eyes had widened to the size of dinner plates in disbelief. "Iggy!" She screamed, but he cut her off.

"No! Get the others and get out of here!" Usually she would have glared at him for trying to order her around, but right now, she knew as well as he did that it didn't really matter at this point.

Now Gazzy and Angel both had their wings spread out wide and had already taken off, which filled Iggy with a strange sense of pride. Next was Nudge. She looked like she was going to stay, but decided against it. Wise girl. Fang ran but didn't get to far before realizing that Max wasn't next to him. Iggy watched as Fang ran back and grabbed Max's sleeve, he whispered something that he couldn't hear into her ear. She nodded her head and, with his hand still firmly holding her shirt, they ran.

Iggy never really liked Fang, but if he was willing to get his sister out of here, Iggy would be eternally grateful. Even if it was Fang.

He turned to look back for just a second and realized that the cops were much closer to getting him, in fact, they were right on top of him. Literally. One of the cops had tackled him to the ground. He would have screamed, but he realized that he didn't want himself to look weak, so he kept his mouth shut. Just like Max would have done in a similar situation. Instead Of looking like a failure, he writhed and bucked like a wild animal, trying to throw the guy off of him. Man, was he heavy. This officer definitely had to cut back on the donuts and coffee. He probably _lived_ off of caffeine and sugar.

For a few moment Iggy began to feel a little tired, like he was about to pass out, but quickly pushed the feeling aside. No time to worry about that now. Max had always told him that most events in a persons life happen according to their own thinking. If he thought he would get caught, then he'd stand no chance. He swung his leg out with all the strength he possessed, and his boot made contact with the man's shin, snapping it in half. Iggy even heard the incredible satisfying 'crack'. The man cried out in pain, but all Iggy could think was, 'Can I kill you? Please? See, I'm a good person. I actually asked for permission.'

Iggy stood up straight again, ignoring the now extremely obvious pain in his arm and the crazy amount of blood flowing freely from the wound as it stained his torn shirt. The amount of blood he had lost was starting to make him feel nauseous. He simply stood there, swaying slightly on his feet, but staying upright. He wanted so badly to give up, to just lie down and never get back up. This was all too much for him. He did want to fight, of course, it was just that he wanted to rest first. But then suddenly he remembered seeing his sister's face She looked at him with a crazed, desperate look, and with that, Iggy knew that he had to get back. If not for himself, then for his sister. If only to see her face once more. He wasn't going to die. Not without looking at his sister one last time.

He turned around right as a bullet whizzed past him, just barely missing his face. It was so close that he had felt the wind of it as it passed. Is this what Max had felt like when those guys had shot at her? He hoped not. He couldn't stand the thought of his sister going through so much pain. How could Fang have just stood back, watching Max get shot at? That loser. The thought made Iggy grit his teeth. Everything about Fang did.

He had wanted to run, but he simply couldn't, there was nowhere to turn. Whenever this had happened in a movie, it had seemed so stupid. Now it felt anything but stupid. It felt scary as shit. Max would definitely have glared at him for using this kind of language. And, for some reason, that made him feel extremely rebellious. Not that he wasn't already, but, you know, more. 'I cannot believe I'm thinking about how rebellious I am right now.' The thought barely had to time to cross his mind.

His head whipped in every direction, trying to find a way out, but no matter where he looked, he saw nothing but disappointment. Cops everywhere. Surrounding him. Now, if only he had wings, like Gazzy and Angel, then he could have flown away, but no. All Iggy had was a dog tail. Not even dog ears that would help him hear better, he had a stupid tail. He was too busy looking in front of him, that he didn't notice the man sneaking up to him from behind.

"So, what are you gonna do?" He asked, provoking them, "Knock me unconscious?" He suddenly felt a cloth pressed up against his face, covering his mouth and nose. He tried not to breathe it in, but it was no use. Even freaks like himself had to breathe sooner or later. He sniffed, and a sickly sweet smell filled his nose, and his eyelids started to droop. Almost like he was in a dream, his eyes started to flutter shut, and he watched, in slow motion, as another person ran up to him. The only thought that crossed his mind before he was swallowed by the unforgiving darkness was, 'Perfect!'

 **So, Yeah, Iggy definitely REALLY hates Fang. The reason is just that he feels like Fang acts way too suspicious, Iggy is just concerned about Max, that's all. In case you were, you know, confused. Anyways, review! The next chapter isn't coming up until I have a review! So make it happen, people!**

 **Fly on**


	29. Chapter 28

**Guys, I feel so horrible, I haven't posted in forever. I guess school is just getting to me. It's really easy, but school is school. And I hate school. Anyways, thanks to my latest reviewer (you'll know who you are), I smiled when I read your review. It was just great. Anyways, it might take me a while to get back into the swing of reviewing, but don't worry, I'll get it. Just to freshen up your memory, last chapter ended with Iggy running with the cops on his tail**

Chapter Twenty eight

Max POV

"Max, it's been so long, what's he doing?" Oh, I dunno, maybe running. You know, just a thought. But I could have been wrong. Though I doubted that I was.

"I'm not sure, sweetie." Angel looked at me like she wanted to say more, but kept quiet when she saw the look I was giving her.

"Max," Fang called my name and I turned to look at him, "we should go back and find him. He's been gone too long."

"Yeah, let's go!" Nudge said, sounding a little strange.

"Nudge, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I don't really think you should come."

"What, why?! How come you can go, but I can't."

"Well, for one, you could get hurt."

"So could you!"

"But I'm older than you."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Nudge, I'm not going to tell you again. You are not going."

"This isn't fair! No! Fang, tell her this isn't fair!" She turned her head to face her brother, looking broken.

But Fang shook his head, "Sorry, sis, but she's right. It's dangerous."

"Our whole lives are dangerous!" She screamed, sounding exasperated. "That doesn't mean we should just stop living them! You just don't want me to go because I'm a girl!"

"No that's not at all why. Max is a girl, isn't she?" He probably shouldn't have said that as a question.

"Yeah, but she's equal to a boy."

"Hey, you know I'm right here! I hate being talked about in third person." They both ignored me. Typical.

"Nudge, you aren't coming."

"Yes I am!"

"No."

"I am!"

"Nudge!" He screamed. Which scared me. He never lost his temper. Especially not with his sister. "You are going to stay here! Do I make myself clear?!"

Nudge shrunk back and quietly whispered "yes." I barely caught it, even with my amazing sense of hearing.

Fang turned around and began walking away, and I quickly followed after him, casting a sorry glance back at Nudge. I was about to say something but noticed that he was shaking. Not from fright, but because he was angry. He never got like this. And it scared me.

"Are you okay?" My voice was gentle.

"I'm fine!" Yeah, sure you are buddy.

"You don't sound like it."

"I said I'm fine!" He clearly wasn't, but I wasn't about to say anything. He sounded so angry, he was actually frightening me, like, badly. I backed away from him, and walked a little bit behind him. He cast me a look, something flashing in his eyes briefly, but said nothing and turned around again.

We walked like that for a little while, him ahead, with me following silently behind him, looking at everything but him. I was just afraid that if I accidentally said something, Fang would most likely turn around and strangle me. I'm not kidding, he was so pissed right now, he probably would have done it. I was so lost in thought, I didn't notice Fang stopping abruptly. I crashed into him, but backed away quickly, an annoyed look crossing my face, but said nothing.

He turned around to face me, "Look, I'm sorry. I'm just seriously pissed right now." I nodded, but nothing more. He sighed, "Max, if you're angry at me, just say it."

"I'm not angry."

"It's just that she's my sister. I have to take care of her."

"I know what it's like. I have got to be the fastest runner on the planet. I've spent my entire life chasing after Iggy. And the thing is, I don't mind, because I love him more than anything in the planet. I'd do anything for him. And you too. Never think you aren't part of our family."

"Can we not talk about that now? Or ever?"

"Sorry."

"So. . . Seen any good movies lately?"

"Really, man?"

"I'm just trying to start a conversation."

"Yeah, and I'm a freaking ballerina." Like he'd ever try to start a conversation.

"Seriously."

"Whatever."

"What are you actually trying to do?"

"Whatever do you mean?" He asked innocently. Hah! Fang—innocent! In my nightmares. Ew. I just had a mental image of Innocent Fang. It's awful. Blech! I gave Fang a look. "Okay fine. I'm trying to be a team player. You're always the one who tries to get me to talk, I'm just trying to repay the favour."

"You don't have any favours to repay to. I have never done you any favour. I just helped you out now and then. And let's face it, that's what friends do." He nodded and let a small smile escape onto his lips.

"But seriously. Do you want to talk about… anything?"

"I dunno."

"How about the high price of tuna? Remember last time we came? It costed a fortune."

"I don't like tuna. Besides, it wasn't even that expensive. I understand you liking tuna, you're part cat. But I dunno why, I don't like it."

"Well, then how about the high price of dog treats."

"I will actually slap you."

"Are you asking me for permission to hit me?" Then, almost as an after thought, he muttered, "No one ever really asked before."

My head whipped around, "What?!"

"Oh, curse you and your stupid ninja hearing."

"Is there something you didn't tell me."

"Yes, mom. Lately I've been obsessed with maids. I really enjoy playing maid games, in my spare time I visit maid cafes or dress in maid costumes, while I breathe heavily and stare at myself in the mirror."

"Shut up." We were quiet for a few moments longer. "So, are you gonna tell me what you meant?"

"Dammit. I thought you'd have forgotten. But don't worry, it's nothing really. They just made me fight a whole bunch with things that I couldn't take on. They were really just looking for excuses to beat me up. That's all."

"Oh, that's all, is it?"

"Let's just say that that's how I got my name." I looked at him, confused. "There was one fight that they got me into, it was the worst. They made me try to survive against a wolf. I earned my name in that fight 'cause—" right when he was about to tell me how he got his name, an earth-shattering scream pierced through the air.

We both whipped our heads in the direction of the scream, then under some unspoken agreement, ran towards it. Usually it's best to walk away form the murderous scream, but hey, I am Maximum Ride, Supergirl, Defender Of The Weak.

When we reached the place, we saw a women standing there, gaping at the ground, horrorstruck. We slowly made our way through the crowd that was forming, and saw blood splattered all over the road. There was a small trail of blood starting from around the corner of the street, but at about the middle it was as though the person had collapsed, because that as where most of the blood was. Most of Iggy's blood, I'm sure.

My head began to spin, as I thought of my little brother all alone, bleeding, suffering all of this pain. For a second I felt as though I was going to pass out, but then I heard Fang's voice, "Shit."

I looked at him, not understanding what he meant. He sighed and pulled me away from the crowd, "You really don't understand anything, do you? Don't you realize what's happening? They've taken him."

"Who has?"

"Those so-called 'scientists' who had kidnapped me all those years ago."

 **Not long, I know, but on the bright side, the story has finally actually gotten started. Anyways, who got the whole "maid" thing I did earlier. Review! My updating schedule depends on you guys reviewing.**

 **Fly on**


	30. Chapter 29

Chapter twenty nine

Max pov

No! My brother. My baby brother has been taken away from me. Torn away. And not just by anyone. He was taken by the people who had as good as killed my best friend. Fang. Everything he went through. All that crap that he got thrown at him, is going to be thrown at my little brother. All because I couldn't take care of him. It's my job to watch him, make sure he doesn't get hurt, make sure no one touches him, but instead, I've done the opposite. I haven't taken care of him at all. It was my idea to split up. What kind of idiot would choose to split up even after they knew that they were being hunted? An idiot like me, that's who.

Iggy should never have had this life. He didn't deserve it. He may piss me off at times, but when it counts, he's the sweetest thing since sugar. He shouldn't have this, I deserve a life like this, he doesn't. He should be a kid in grade 8, maybe 9, who's biggest fear was failing final exams. He shouldn't have to worry about whether or not he will live to see tomorrow. He should be able to go to the theaters with his friend, and watch the latest movies. He should be able to cheer like a five year old when he gets to stay up late on weekends. He should be able to go to some ice cream shop with me every Saturday, as a day where he could just hang out with his big sister. He loves soccer, he should be able to have soccer games, which I would come to, just to cheer him on, buy him a treat when he wins, and be there for him to talk to when he doesn't. He should be able to constantly fight with me, but still love me deep down. And the worst part is that I know for sure that he doesn't blame me for this. But he's wrong, this is all my fault. My fault. My fault.

The six of us shouldn't have met under these circumstances. I should have met Fang in one of my class. He would be the boy that everyone loves, but he would love no one. He would sit quietly, with people trying to talk to him, but he'd ignore them. Everyone would adore them, people would shove each other to sit next to him. He's be listening to the teachers instructions intently, blocking out everyone else. He'd be the top student in all of his classes, I would be somewhere in the and I would be assigned partners for a project, he would give me a look as though he expected me to slack off and have him do all of the work. I would prove him wrong. We would soon become friends. He would volunteer to teach me after school, sort of like a tutor, my marks would slowly go up. I would drag Fang to one of Iggy's soccer games, and he would bring his sweet little sister, Nudge. Iggy would come up to me afterwords and see Fang and Nudge, he would befriend Nudge and he wouldn't hate Fang like he does now. The four of us would hang out on weekends, and we'd go to the park one day, where we'd meet Gazzy and Angel. Some older kids would be trying to shove them around, I'd come in and help them, and they'd join our squad. We'd be the strangest, but best group of friends. Two fourteen year olds, a thirteen, eleven, ten and eight. I'd babysit Gazzy and Angel every now and then when their parents would be busy. That's how we should have met. Not like this. Never like this.

And yet, here we are, trying to save my brother from a bunch of psychos.

This is a disaster. Gosh. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to DO? I feel like if I keep on saying that repeatedly, the answer will come and slap me in the face. Sadly, real life is a little harder than that.

I turned to face Fang, glaring at him. How _dare_ he make such a claim? I meant to scream at him, but my voice came out sounding like a desperate cry for help, "Fang, no. No, that isn't true. You said that they were dead."

"I said that I wasn't sure what happened to them." He replied, sounding calm as ever.

"You weren't sure! How dare you?! If you weren't sure you should have said something!"

"I did say something," He looked calm, but his voice sounded harsh and cold, "I said that if they were still alive, they were probably kidnapping Bloods. But I guess it's obvious you weren't listening. You know, just a few moments ago, I thought that telling you was the right decision. But now... now I'm not so sure." Okay, _that_ hit me hard. "Whatever, I'm done talking. Talking is what always screws me over."

What the hell? Why am I such a screw up? I need to get my shit together

First I lose my brother. My fault. And now, I'm losing my best friend. My fault. Soon enough, I bet I'll lose everyone. And it'll be all my fault. "I'm sorry," I choked out, "I'm so sorry." Fang's face softened, just barely, but it did. I felt something wet touch my cheek. "It's all just too much. First I heard all about you, and now there's a possibility that my little brother might be going through the same types of torture. I can't stand it. I can't stand knowing that you guys keep getting hurt and I can do absolutely nothing to stop it. It makes me feel small and weak and insignificant. I've just never felt so...useless." I broke into tears.

It's times like this that Fang is the best. Usually people wouldn't stop talking at a time like this, they'd just keep on asking "what's wrong" and "are you okay". But not Fang. He understands that sometimes silence speaks the loudest.

He just lightly put one hand on my shoulder, almost as if he was unsure of what he was doing. It may have been light, but it was enough. Slowly, my tears subsided into deep gulps of breath. I closed my eyes for a few moments, just willing all of this to go away. Sometimes I feel as though the world is just pulling a big prank on me, I'm just the one unable to keep up with reality. I feel as though, when I will wake up the next morning, I'm going to wake up in bed and realize that all of this was nothing but a dream. I'd come out of my room, still in my sleeping clothes. I'd yell at Nudge for hogging the bathroom. I'd walk into the kitchen to see Iggy at the oven, making something delicious. Angel and Gazzy would be playing in the backyard, Gazzy teaching his little sister to fly, looking proud as she slowly made progress. I'd turn around when I got the feeling that someone was watching me, and I'd see Fang staring at me, silently asking me about Angel's progress, to which I'd just nod my head, _"She's getting better,"_ He'd nod.

But sadly, my life can never be that easy. Because it's _my_ life, and no way am I allowed one day to just rest.

We stood there quietly for a few moments, then Fang spoke again, "We should get back to the others. Tell them what we found out." I nodded my head and he slowly pulled his hand back, while I tried to hide my tears.

"Fang." He looked at me, "If we didn't meet like this, if we were normal, how do you think we'd have met."

He did't answer for a long time, but when he did, he simply said, "We wouldn't have met at all."

"But what if we did? What if we all went to the same school and..." I began telling him about how I wished we had met. By the time I was done, he was staring at me, he looked uninterested, but he had a calculating gaze. "So, what do you think?"

"I think... that I hate dwelling on the 'what if's'. That isn't how things are, so I don't think it should matter." He pulled himself to walk ahead of me, and didn't look back at me even once. What the hell?

"Fang-"

"Max, stop it. You're annoying me." Oh, okay, um, wow. That... that hurt. A surprising amount. Then it hit me, this is what Fang used to be like, when he first showed up. He barely ever talked to us, and when he did, he was cold and cruel. He's going back to that. And I don't know how to stop it.


End file.
